The Untold Tales of a Child's Hell
by Fox Mew Brittany
Summary: Inspired by Project X's 'Hell is for Children', in here are oneshots and ficlets of what may have happened, could've happened and AUs.
1. The End AU

_[This was the first oneshot I did for Jamy's 'Hell is for Children' story. I was meaning to put up more of the oneshots/ficlets when I got a good number but I lost inspiration/motivation, so now I'm just going to upload all that I have just because I can. __ It is entirely up to Jamy to decide if what is here happens in her story. I cannot promise steady updates seeing as most of these were written months ago before/after the hiatus.__]_

_(AU Hell is for Children. With the 'help' of angels, X is sent in the future where her team disbanded due to the team finding out that X works for Crowley and Sora gave into what demon blood does, consumed copious amounts and used the power she gained to control many demons.)_

Awakening in an unfamiliar part of a town, X looked around to see that everywhere was in ruins, no people walking around, no animals making a sound, even the insects were silent. The hunter took notice to the fence around the city she was in and noticed the words 'Croatoan' and 'Quarantine' on it while the rest was faded.

X made an attempt to contact her team but her cell was showing no signal anywhere and even with a signal the call would not pick up or the female voice saying that the number is out of service or disconnected. Pocketing the cell Night ventured further into the desolate city, instincts heightening themselves as she kept one hand hovering over her gun until she realized that she left it back in the hotel she was originally at, but she quickly padded herself down to find that she had her blessed knife on her.

Going through several alleyways X heard what sounded like footsteps running behind her. Rapidly spinning around to see what was behind her, there was no one there, keeping on her toes X continued to walk down the alley with her knife out and ready to attack anything that comes her way. Making it out onto a street X heard more footsteps and shuffling papers and trashcans which had sent X nearly over the edge. Turning around to see what was making all that noise, she found that there was a horde of people running at her and not taking any chances of them being friendly, plus being outnumbered, she ran.

Looking back to see if she lost the horde, it seemed that they grew in numbers!

_ 'What the hell?! What the hell is going on here?!'_ X thought as she took a quick turn into a warehouse and quickly closed the door. The hunter had no time to rest before two men grabbed her arms, forced the knife out of her hand and started carrying her to god knows where. "Hey, let me go! Who are you and what the hell is going on here?!" X demanded as she struggled to get out of the men's grasp.

"Let her go!" a female voice rang out in the warehouse which surprised X since she recognized the voice.

"Sora? Sora is that you?" X asked as the men released her and the woman known as Sora stepped out into the open with two men at her side and holding a champagne glass of dark red liquid.

"Long time no see, X." Sora said in a not so kind voice, looking at the hunter with a dark look. "What do I owe the visit? Has your master decided that I'm far too much of a threat to keep alive? Or..." her voice began to have a slight cheery tone to it, "Have you reconsidered my offer?"

X was confused as can be about Sora's behavior and the men around her, "What are you talking about, Sora? Where's Monarch and Wolf and what's going on out there?"

The elder ex-hunter had a slight perplexed look slide on her face after her former partner asked her questions, but then had an idea of what was with her former friend's confusion. "Ohh," Sora chuckled as she did a gesture with her hand and handed her glass to the man on her left, "Those angels sure know how to screw with someone's mind when it comes to dealing with the apocalypse." she then added, "The year is 2014, X, the Croatoan virus broke out, our rag-tag family broke up because we found out about you working for Crowley and from there cities with outbreaks of the virus were quarantined."

Hearing the short-end version of all the chaos out there X was more concerned with how her friends found out about her secret about working for Crowley. "How'd you find out?"

"X, hon, that'll just spoil everything." Sora then took her glass back from the man and took a sip of it. "Can't send ya back with too much information, whoever sent you here is wanting you to learn something about whatever decision you'll make back in the present. Or to stop something, whatever it is, I don't know nor do I care." Sora downed the rest of the glass and handed it off back to the man on her left who left.

"What's gotten into you Sora?" X demanded not believing that the woman in front of her was the same girl that she saved from death, "Are Monarch and Wolf still alive?"

Sora shrugged her shoulders, "I dunno, lost interest in their survival after they left." Sora then strides over to a chair to sit down as the same man came back with a now full glass of whatever Sora was drinking. "Oh, how rude of me, X would you like a drink and please, have a seat." Sora gestured to a chair directly across from her.

Taking all that Sora now was in, X sat down in the seat Sora gestured to and was trying to wrap her head around the fact that her team was gone, but now she was parched from all the running she did, "Actually, yes I would love something to drink."

"Okay, well since the virus broke out our beverages are limited but we have a selection of bottled water, demon blood, wine..."

"Wait! What did you just say?" X demanded, hoping she didn't hear what she thought she heard.

"Wine?"

"No, before that!"

"Water?"

"No! After that and before wine."

"Ohh, demon blood." Sora answered, "Believe it or not, demon blood has it's perks, a lot better than energy drinks and protein shakes combined." The former hunter took another long sip of the dark red liquid that X assumed to be demon blood and grimaced.

_'She's lost it! What the hell happened after the team broke up?' _X wondered, the shock only slightly wearing off, "Umm, I would like some water. But please answer my question Sora, what happened to you and the others?"

Sora looked at X with an unamused look, set her glass down on the floor and crossed her legs and propped her head up using her arms resting on her leg. "When our family broke up, Monarch, Wolf and I continued to hunt... Well one night during a hunt a demon bled on me, some of the blood got in my mouth and I swallowed it without realizing it. A day later I found both strength and mental capabilities had skyrocketed, at first neither me or the others knew what happened until we thought back to that hunt." Sora started explaining, "Unfortunately, I was unprepared of how... addictive, it can be. God, the addiction was hard to fight, it was nothing that I've ever experienced before, in due time I was sneaking demon blood behind their backs and consuming it like there was no tomorrow."

"Did they even try to help you?" X got on her feet, "Didn't Monarch or Wolf stop you from practically destroying yourself?!

Sora glared at X before grabbing the glass half-full of demon blood, downing more before chucking it across the room, "They tried! Don't even think for a moment that they didn't do everything in their power to help me!" She yelled at the hunter from the past, "When things started to get out of hand they tried to call you! You never answered, you never came and I was left to deal with this addiction!" The former hunter then let out an exasperated sigh and turned to X, "Later, I saw it as your way of getting back as us, for leaving and abandoning you. If we left you, why should you come to help. So... once my sickness was too hard to cure, Monarch and Wolf left and we've lost contact. I'm used to being alone, but there's a limit to how much solitude one can take and once my limit was hit I started surrounding myself with demons using the power I had to keep them docile and under my control."

_~Flashback~_

_In an abandoned house Wolf was holding a shaking Sora in her arms, trying her best to hold onto the elder hunter. Wolf couldn't help but feel terrified at the mess Sora had become and desperately looked to Monarch, who was pacing back and forth on his cell trying to reach someone._

_ "Any luck?" Wolf asked in desperation then flinched when Sora cried out and tried to break free of Wolf's grasp._

_ Monarch hung up the phone then quickly reopened it to hit the redial, "Damn it X, pick up! We need you." He muttered, growing tired of the seemingly endless rings and getting voicemails. "She won't answer!" Monarch told Wolf then tried to leave a message, "X, I know what we did was unforgivable, but we need your help. It's Sora, she gotten herself into trouble and we don't know what to do. Please, if you get this, call back or come to Minerva, Nevada, that's where we'll be."_

_With that Monarch closed the cell phone just in time for Wolf to unwillingly let go of Sora and her body get flung to one side of the room. Quickly retaliating the situation, Monarch got a hold of Sora managed to put her on the cot the group had and tie her down to make sure she doesn't throw herself across the room again. Too risky to leave Sora on her own, Monarch took charge and told Wolf to stay with Sora and call if anything happens._

_ A while after Monarch left to get new supplies for the road, Wolf felt uneasy with how Sora was struggling against her binds. "Sora, you gotta fight it. You're gonna make it." She tried to encourage Sora in hopes of it helping, not knowing that at the time she was hallucinating a demon version of herself._

_ "Admit it Sora, you need it." the 'demon' Sora taunted as she walked over to the bound Sora, cut her wrist to 'bleed' into Sora's mouth. "Give in and drink to your heart's content."_

_ Sora shook her head violently from side to side as if to prevent the blood from getting into her mouth, "Y-you're not real... You're not..." she whimpered, trying to remember what was real and what wasn't._

_ "Sora, you gotta get a hold of yourself!" Wolf tried to break through Sora's hallucinating phase, "Look at me, Sora!"_

_The withdrawal stricken hunter looked at the youngest of the group and tried to hold on to the fact that she was real and worried. Agonizing pain began washing over Sora's entire being and in the process Sora pulled harder against her restraints._

_While Wolf was making sure that the restraints didn't slack, the hunter was unaware of the new presence in the room. Realizing that she and Sora weren't the only ones in the room, Wolf turned around to see a demon behind her and swatted her away like a gnat._

_ "W-wolf..." Sora weakly cried as her body started uncontrollably started shaking again._

_ "She's not going to help you, Sora." the hallucination chided, standing next to the very real demon. "You're on your own, but now time to appease your need." The hallucination finished in a chipper tone as the demon knelt next to Sora, cut the palm of his hand started making his blood flow into the hunter's mouth._

_Sora tried to stop the blood from entering her mouth by closing it and turning her head to the side, but the demon retaliated by grabbing her chin and forced her mouth open. Once a decent amount of demon blood was in her mouth, the demon forced her mouth closed and waited for her addiction to instinctively swallow the blood. Being unable to spit out the blood, Sora unwillingly drank the blood and not too long after drinking it, the hunter got the strength to break free from her binds, grabbed the demon's knife and slit his throat._

_Hopped up on demon blood and still had an undying thirst for more, Sora couldn't help herself but drink the blood that was pouring out from the wound. Wolf was freed from the telekenetic hold the demon formerly had on her and just stood in shock at how ravenously the elder hunter drank in the blood._

_Quickly getting out her phone, she dialed Monarch number, "Monarch, you need to get back here now! I don't know if I can handle Sora alone." _

_ "What happened Wolf?" Monarch quickly paid the cashier the money for the food, grabbed what he purchased and stormed out to the red mustang._

_ "A demon got inside, a gust of wind must've broken the salt line or something but... it bled into Sora's mouth. She got loose and..." Wolf's voice trailed off and the distinct sounds of a phone being put down was heard, "Sora, you gotta stop!" From there scuffling was heard over the phone and protests._

_ "I'm on my way, just try to stop Sora!" Monarch then hung up the phone, buckled up and sped off using the back roads to get to the old house they were temporarily staying in._

_Back at the house Wolf was trying her best to keep Sora far away from the now deceased human, demon blood still flowing out of the body. The youngest of the hunters had more difficulty holding Sora back now that she had drank the blood, which made her stronger. Keeping the demon blood addict in a choke hold served some good in preventing Sora to get to the body, since Sora's need for air was more important than the blood._

_Car wheels sliding to a stop, Monarch turned off the car, jumped out of it and stormed into the house to find a dead demon and Wolf holding Sora back. As quick as possible Monarch went to dispose of the body, in the process of dragging it out the second oldest hunter ordered Wolf to keep Sora back until he could get all traces of demon blood out._

_~X~_

_Living in Hunter Manor alone, X opened her phone to see several missed calls and messages from Monarch and WolfAngel. Deciding to humor herself to see what they want X put the phone on speaker and walked into the kitchen as Monarch's more recent messages came alive on the phone. Once the message was finished X walked back over to her phone, with a bottle of whiskey in hand and closed out of her voicemails before anymore started playing._

_Unscrewing the lid to the strong alcohol, X took a big swig of it and sat back on the chair since she had yet to be commissioned and her leads on her current case had gone cold. Her current case was to find the key to Pandora's Box for Crowley, X knew what everyone else knew about the box, it had already been opened all those years ago so there shouldn't be anything left inside. But just delivering the box wasn't good enough to be paid, it was either deliver Pandora's Box with it's key or let Crowley hire someone else to find it and pay them._

_Getting another call from Crowley asking for an update on the status of her case, he wasn't too pleased about X not finding the key. Practically ordering her to try harder to look for the key, the King of the Crossroads gave X a little more incentive to help by saying that her pay will be more than originally if she finds the key. Needing as much money as she could get, X got back to doing her research on where Pandora could've possibly hid her key then factor in where it could've gone over the time._

_~End of Flashback~_

The ex-hunter then sat back down on the chair, holding her head in her hands and tried to calm down, remembering that she was talking to the past X-Night, not the current. "Sorry... You're not the X I know, lately she's been coming around either throwing deals or trying to kill me, on orders from Crowley of course. I could never find that slippery eel, met him only once and that was it."

"Crowley usually doesn't present himself to people unless he's called upon for a deal or summoned." X said to the future Sora who then made a recovery by getting up from her seat, walking over to a cupboard and pouring possibly demon blood from a bottle and got out a bottle of water which was tossed to X. She uncapped the bottle and started taking small mouthfuls of the untainted water. "Just curious, how is it that you guys found out that I work for Crowls?" X asked, thinking that if future Sora told her then she could prevent them finding out and save their family.

Sora smirked for a moment then let out a light chuckle, "Okay, I see what you're doing... Pandora's Box, you find it, then forgetting something back at the manor you made a quick stop. While you were looking for whatever it was you were looking for, Wolf rummaged through your bag to find the box, we all confronted you about it and kinda forced you to spill the beans." Sora then walked back over to her seat, "As for the key to the box... do you know where it's at?"

All X did was shake her head from side to side, wanting Sora to answer so when she gets back to the present, it'll make her search that much easier.

"Shame," Sora put her glass down on the floor again as she strides over to X, gotten behind her and wrapped her arms around her neck. "Think accessories when looking for the key." She whispered into X's ear before letting her go and going back to where she was sitting.

_'Accessories? What the hell?'_ was the thought that ran through X's mind, trying to figure out what Sora was getting to but there wasn't much time to ponder on the information due to the fact that two men, no, demons, came in.

"Mistress, she's here again."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Invite her in, can't allow those Croats to get to her." Sora then looked at a table that was on the far end of the room and without warning the table was raised off the ground and floating towards her and X. Once the table was placed between Sora's and X's seats, the demon blood drinking woman leaned back in her seat, putting her hand over her eyes to block out any light and had a pained expression on her face.

"You okay Sora?" X asked, looking behind her to see who the uninvited guest was that the demon was talking about.

"Headache, I haven't been drinking as much demon blood as I have been in the past. If I don't drink copious amounts I get headaches so I've been trying to regulate how much I drink." Sora explained herself then looked to the window on the roof, "Night, get down from there! I know you're here so you might as well show yourself!" Sora shouted at the ceiling and X looked up just in time to see her future self drop down and landed feet first on the floor.

From the moment X-Night landed inside the warehouse, several demons walked into sight but Sora raised her hand to stop them. Making a shooing gesture, the demons looked at one another then left the room knowing what Sora could do if they done something to anger her. X couldn't help but be both amazed and shocked at how she looked several years from now if everything went as it had. X-Night wore her signature black leather jacket, black tight t-shirt underneath, dark jeans and black boots. X's future self was also equipped with Silver Lily, two guns and a few hidden knives. X-Night paid no attention to X, her main attention was on Sora, emerald eyes locked onto her former friend but had said nothing to her.

"Crowley or chat?" Sora asked, leaning forward and propping her elbows on the table to look at X-Night.

"Crowley," she replied as she took out a gun and aimed it at Sora. "He found out about your men making off with his workers. My employer has turned a blind eye on several occasions since you started taking demons for your addiction, but taking his workers crossed the line."

Sora raised an eyebrow hearing that her recent blood supply was supplied by crossroads demons, "I have been noticing that my blood supply had tasted rather... bitter." Sora's tone had a slight hint of disgust when referring to the blood she'd been drinking. "If that's how the blood of a crossroads demon tastes then I'd rather not bother wondering what your master's blood tastes like."

X-Night didn't waiver and kept her gun fixed on Sora, though looking out of the corner of her eye she noticed X standing there looking at her in disbelief. "Who's this?" X-Night nodded her head in X's direction.

"Doesn't she look familiar Night deary... She's you, from the past." Sora answered without missing a beat.

X-Night lowered her gun as she looked at X out of the corner of her eye, seeing herself and how she used to be in the past. "Why are you here?"

X realized that her future self had asked her a question but even she didn't know the answer, "I don't know. One minute I'm resting at a motel from a commission case then the next I'm here." The present day hunter then asked, "When our team broke up... Did everyone leave? Him too?" X wanted to know if everyone X knew would leave her if they found out about her working for Crowley.

Knowing perfectly well who X was talking about all X-Night did was nod. The nod from her future self had started making X think about what she would and should do once she gets back to her own time. Though before the present day hunter could say anything else, Sora had ordered her men to come in and 'escort' X out.

Two demons entering on command, on both sides of the hunter they had to force X away from the two while X tried to look back and voice her objection to herself killing Sora. As X was forced out of the warehouse, the door was locked behind her and silence sunk in.

_ This can't be how my future is supposed to be!'_ X ran around the warehouse to see any other entrances inside. _'I know how to stop us from breaking apart, but I don't want any of this to continue.'_

The young hunter then started scaling the smaller building that were close to the warehouse to try to re-enter from the roof like her future self had done earlier. Failing a few times, X finally was able to get to the roof and arrive at the window just in time to see that X-Night had her gun aimed at Sora once more. Just when she was about to open the window, X noticed that Sora was looking at her, shook her head from side to side before looking back at her executioner and nodded.

_**BANG**_

With one bullet, X-Night's former friend and ally fallen to the ground, crimson blood pooling around her body. Feeling the black hole enter her heart again, X was frozen in place, in shock that she followed Crowley's order to kill Sora. Granted that she didn't fully understand the circumstances that lead up to this event, but she had now wished that she never witnessed it.

Gritting her teeth in anger, X took in a deep breath, "Whoever you are, what the hell did you want me to see?!" X screamed at the sky, wanting the being that brought her to that time to hear her. "What did you want me to learn!?"

Never in her life that X hated herself so much, but it was there that she realized that she can change her future. None of what she witnessed was set in stone, standing on the roof preparing to get off, just as she turned a figure touched her forehead and rendered the hunter unconscious.

Jumping awake at the sound of 'Hell is for Children' X woke up in her motel room that she was originally staying in. Checking everything, X realized that she was back in her own time and quickly answered Crowley's call which was to be updated on the search for Pandora's Box. Telling him that she was close to finding the box, the two hung up on one another as X fell back on the bed.

_ 'That future won't ever happen... I'll make sure of it.' _X made a vow to herself, her rag-tag family was important to her since she doesn't even remember her real family or if she even had one.


	2. What If pt1

_What if X wasn't the only Hunter Crowley employed to do his bidding. What if he employed Sora knowing perfectly well that she and X were on the same team? What if Sora only worked for Crowley to help sustain her team's lifestyle and keep food in the cabinets like X does. But neither of the two knows of each other's employment with the King of the Crossroads._

No Where, Texas. Hunter Manor. 2006,

_~Kimi wa hoshii no choai_  
><em>Penarutii wa shou ga nai<em>

_Tokei no hari wo gyakuni_  
><em>Mawashi temo modore nai<em>  
><em>Kaado wa mou temoto niwa nai nosa.~<em>

Sora groaned as she rolled over on her side to see that her phone was buzzing to life on the nightstand on her left.

'_I swear to god that Crossroads demon is going to get a fist full of salt when I get a hold of him!'_

None too happy about being woken up, Sora sat up in her bed, picked up her phone and answered the call.

"This better be a god damn emergency Crowley." Sora growled into the phone before yawning as the sleep was starting to fade.

"Good morning to you too, love." Crowley ignored Sora's less than enthusiastic greeting, "I got some pests that need to be gotten rid of. I would have my pawns exterminate them but why not call someone on my payroll to keep them entertained."

Sora let out a low sigh as she fell back down on her bed. Telling the demon that she'll be there, Sora hung up on Crowley and made an attempt to get moving.

Getting out of her bed Sora went through her usual morning of getting dress, taking care of hygiene, making sure that the devils trap sketches that she decorated the ceiling and floor with were not smudged. Finishing with her morning rituals, Sora headed downstairs to find the rest of the team having breakfast and having a carefree time. Monarch cooked up his special omelets with cheese and bacon bits which had Sora's mouth-watering at just the scent; Sora joined the rest of the team in eating breakfast and contributed to the conversation before having to leave using a lie.

Sora didn't like lying to her team, but she'd rather not have to explain her reason for why she was working for a demon. Heck, working for Crowley never did sit well with the hunter at all, even after she was working for him for a few months.

**X**

Unknown, January, 2005

X and Sora had another argument at Hunter Manor; the argument was of how their case went which was half-cocked and hardly planned out. Due to the manner of how the case was, it nearly gotten them seriously injured, but luckily Sora was able to tend to both their injuries though she didn't like how they gotten them.

The elder of the two hunters kept her mouth shut until all the wounds were patched up. Though it was obvious that Sora wasn't too pleased and X knew she was pissed. Once everything was done it was when the argument broke out and how X just ran into the fight without thinking of a battle plan.

When X and Sora have their little 'heart to heart's some furniture would be nearly broken and the room they'd be in would look like a tornado and a hurricane blew by. Once the argument between the two was 'over', Sora stormed out of the manor, got into the red mustang that was salvaged and sped off the property to blow off steam.

Driving for who knows how long, maybe a day or two, Sora found herself in a small town with a huge mansion in the middle. The hunter didn't pay any mind to the mansion as she parked the car somewhere hidden and gotten out a few guns loaded with regular rounds out from the trunk, a canteen of holy water just in case and headed off what looked like an abandoned shoe factory. Going inside and setting up a line with old worn out shoes on a conveyor belt, gotten a good distance away from the belt in case the bullets somehow ricochet and used the gun with normal rounds to open fire on the shoes.

Once Sora began opening fire on the line of shoes, that was when her thoughts went back to the argument her and X had, but in truth she really thought of how the entire fight could've been avoided or patched up. Down to two shoes left on the conveyor belt Sora shot them off with ease and was about to reload her gun until she saw out of the corner of her eye two men near the door.

The elder hunter turned to the two men, "Christo!" Sora casually said to the men as if it was a mere hello, but seeing the two men flinch at the name of God in Latin Sora slowly went to her canteen of holy water and slightly uncapped the lid.

"I don't believe you'll need that holy water for where you're going." a demon behind Sora said as he took the canteen right out of her hands and tossed it away.

The elder hunter glared at the demons that were in the area but Sora knew better than to fight them off on her own. Raising her hands up in surrender she relinquished control to the demons, but had a plan in mind for escape and if things were to go bad in a hurry she could just start chanting the exorcism spell to stun them.

For now she allowed the demons to escort her to the mansion that was in the middle of the town, Sora done her best to ignore it, but she was curious as to who lived inside and who had enough power and influence to have demon guards. Once inside the mansion Sora could help but look all around her to see expensive furniture, rugs and works of art.

'_Whoever lives here definitely is rich... Rich and has quite the taste in art and decor.'_ Sora thought as she was lead to two double mahogany wood doors, though the thought that kept popping into her mind was that the mansion was definitely home to a demon due to the sulfur in the air. '_God, I hate sulfur!'_

One of the two demons had knocked on the door before entering and waited for permission to enter, "Sir, we have the intruder in custody."

"Come in then." A man with a faint Scottish accent or English accent allowed the two demons plus Sora to enter. As the two demons opened the door the first thing Sora laid her eyes on was the man sitting behind a mahogany desk with his feet propped up on the surface after walking into the room and the two demon guards left the room. "You have a lot of nerve trespassing in my terri-"

"I was unaware that this town was under the control of a demon." Sora interrupted the man that she was assuming was a demon. "Like anyone else who strolls on by, this town would pass as a ghost town... in the non-supernatural term."

Without knowing, a soft growl resounded in the room and a warm breeze hit Sora's shoulder. Feeling the supposed warm breeze, Sora touched her shoulder and cringed that she recognized the consistency of why her shirt was slightly damp, but when she looked to her left... there was nothing.

'_Oh god... This demon has a Hellhound!'_ Slowly Sora side-stepped to the right to put only a tiny bit of distance between her and the Hellhound she couldn't see but she had plenty of knowledge on the attack dogs of Hell.

"Have a seat; you look like you could use one."  
>"No thanks, I'd rather-"<p>

"SIT!" The demon cut Sora off with his booming voice and instantly she planted herself on the leather chair and practically froze. His calm composure showing again, the demon leaned forward and asked, "Now, do tell me why you're here? With your lack of weaponry, I doubt that you're here on a hunt."

Sora didn't bother questioning on how this demon knew she was a hunter... Well the giveaway would've been the canteen of holy water she was carrying, but it was cast away back in the old factory. "I was just blowing off steam, my friend," Sora then quickly added, "Whose not a hunter, and I got into a fight, didn't end on a good note and I just drove out here thinking it was abandoned to cool down."

The demon then looked as if he was unamused by Sora's answer, "And let me guess, your friend didn't approve of your hunter job?"

"That's exactly what the fight was about." Sora lied, remaining calm and successfully made sure that no signs of her lying was shown, "She didn't like how I make a living as a hunter and tried to convince me to retire early before I got myself killed... but then again when I do get a job people practically don't pay enough for what I have to go through." Sora complained with a little truth behind her words, human commissioners didn't pay enough, there would only be enough money for food and the manor's generator to keep power to the place.

There was quite a bit of silence in the room, even the Hellhound was quiet! Sora put on her emotionless mask after getting over how slightly irritating it was of human commissioners to pay her and X so little for what they do out of habit. The demon behind the desk looked her over as if seeing if she was lying or telling the truth to him. In the silence, the elder hunter couldn't help but move her attention to the decor of the room and seen that it was more like a study or a room strictly made for business, despite its purpose, everything in the room felt like it perfectly fit.

"How good are you at hunting? What have you hunted?" The demon asked Sora which somewhat took her by surprise since that wasn't the question she was expecting.

"I'm like the average hunter, I do my own research on the supernatural, and I try to stay one step ahead of the game and never at the same place twice." Sora answered the first question to the best of her extent since in truth, hunted with a partner. "As for the second, I've hunted demons, ghosts,_ vampires_," The word slid off her tongue as if it was acid, Sora hated vampires with a fiery passion for what they did to her.

"You got something against vampires?" The demon asked half-heartedly when he took notice at how Sora said 'vampires'.

Sora looked down to her right and let out a sigh, "Vampires killed my mom while I was visiting in Florida on break. I was almost about to be turned until another hunter came in and rescued me... since then I wanted to hunt down monsters so no one would have to go through what I did."

It nearly pained Sora to talk about her mother's death and how it was caused, in truth, she still wasn't over it. It also pained her to leave the family that she still had behind without a word of warning, the only other family Sora had that she cared about were her grandma, aunt, uncle and cousin.

Hopping from cheap motel to cheap motel provided some cover to hide along with distance from the whereabouts of her remaining family. Granted, it wasn't nice but it was a temporary roof over hers and X's head while they went on their hunts and got food for the road.

"So basically, you entered the hunter life to rid the world of monsters alone, leaving whatever you had behind and going lone wolf? Never once thinking that you'll need a partner?"

"The hunter that saved me was alone. If she can hunt alone then I don't see why I can't." Sora threw back at the demon and tried to anticipate his next question or comment.

The demon didn't say anything but sat back in his chair, "How much do you make when you have a job?"

That question nearly took Sora by surprise and wonder why he was asking. "I don't know? Maybe a hundred, depending on how long it takes for the job to be finished and how much the contractor is willing to pay."

The demon seemed to be amused by what Sora had said then suggested, "How would you feel if I were to offer you employment?" The male demon waited to see her reaction and when he saw that she was slightly puzzled by what he just said the demon smirked, "You work for me by coming here and shooing unnecessary pests out of my territory when I call. Unlike your human commissioners, I'll be willing to pay more than what they had ever paid," the demon said to Sora, "What do you say to that, love?"

Thinking over what she learned from X, working for a demon really didn't sit well with her but if the pay was going to be like the demon said it would then what would it hurt? "It's a better deal than I've ever gotten. I'll take ya up on it."

"Good, and just for future reference, the name's Crowley; King of the Crossroads."

"I'm Sora."

**X**

Needing to take a vehicle to go to the Crossroads demon, Sora contemplated on taking the mustang but she didn't want to leave Monarch and Wolf without transportation in case they get a case. Preparing for days like this Sora ventured around the back of the manor, walked to a small wooded area until she got to a covered car.

Removing the cover and placing it a hollow tree, a clean black mustang was revealed underneath. At first Sora wasn't into small cars and stick-shift, but the more she had to drive the red mustang with the help of Monarch the elder hunter got used to it. Retrieving the keys from the front wheel, Sora unlocked the trunk to for supplies, everything that she had first placed in there laid untouched which meant that the car remained undisturbed. Unlocking the driver's side door Sora slid inside the mustang, hooked up her mp3 player to the radio and turned it on, then started up the car and took off from the manor.

Knowing fully well that the car was filled up, it left Sora free to drive down the highway to her destination with as little stops as possible.

After two days of driving, Sora finally arrived at her destination and had texted Crowley her location so she could get rid of what he wanted, get paid, then leave. Hearing her phone play a music box ringtone Sora looked at her phone to see that Crowley sent the coordinates of the pest he wanted her to get rid of.

Closing the phone and putting it in her tan leather jacket pocket, the hunter got out of her car, retrieved some gear from the trunk, mostly a nine millimeter loaded with silver rounds, a shotgun with salt rounds, an iron knife and a canteen of holy water. Locking up her means of transportation, Sora headed into the abandoned town to track down the supernatural being that happened to cross into Crowley's territory.

Arriving at the center of the town, Sora looked around her to see nothing of importance. Pulling out a town map from the inside pocket of her jacket and an amethyst necklace from her jeans pocket and held it over the map and spoke, "Daemon vel malum ostende te nomen Dei mei."

The amethyst necklace began swinging over the map, several seconds later the stone yanked itself out of her hand and landed on a side street called Revel Street. Getting a general location on what she was hunting; Sora put the map and necklace away and headed off to where the creature was. Making it to Revel Street Sora began looking at the row of empty homes and tried to figure out which one the supernatural was hiding in since the scrying wasn't specific. Deciding to go into the most eerie looking house on the street, the elder hunter gotten herself on guard and prepared for whatever comes at her. Getting inside the house through an unlocked window, Sora slid inside with ease and quietly began searching the house starting with the attic which had nothing but cobwebs, gnats and spiders and at first glance of the spider Sora high tailed it out of the attic and was about to begin her search in the basement.

At the door leading to the basement Sora took a deep breath to calm her nerves, "Come on Sora, it's just a basement. The worse that can be down there are spiders... that or rugarus."

Opening the door and treading carefully down the stairs with her gun and flashlight in hand, Sora couldn't help but feel that something was down there with her. Shining her light in the corners of the surprisingly large and dark basement, she noticed that there were other rooms in the basement. The first room that Sora checked out was a laundry room, the second was like a small study, but coming onto the third Sora seen that it was a bed in disarray. That feeling that someone was behind her sinking in, Sora rapidly spun around only to get tackled onto the bed, her gun and flashlight knocked out of her hands, have her wrists held above her head and was being straddled.

Having to adjust to what little light was in the room, Sora managed to see that it was a woman that was holding her down. From the angle she was at the hunter couldn't tell what she was up against since the majority of the supernatural monsters had inhuman strength.

"So... Who are you?" Sora said in a snarky tone, trying not to show that she was slowly getting worried for her well-being.

"You mean 'what' am I." The woman spoke with a child-like tone as she leaned down into the crook of Sora's neck and inhaled. "You have the faint scent of my father."

"Your father?" Sora was confused at the comment the woman made but then it slowly dawned on her what she was face to face with.

"You were going to be my sister if Jarenson hadn't been killed." the woman continued as she was now face to face with the hunter.

"I thought that X killed you all back in Florida!" Sora snarled, struggling much harder than she was before which seemed to amuse the vampire.

The female vampire chuckled as she kissed Sora's cheek, "I was lucky enough to be sleeping elsewhere when that hunter came by, though..." the look on the vampire's face turned dark as she stared at Sora, "I didn't like coming home to finding my father beheaded along with the rest of my family."

The hunter thought that she had the worse luck in the universe when it came to hunting for Crowley, she hunted a werewolf, poltergeist, and a runaway shape-shifter but a vampire with a grudge was the worst that she faced alone. While Sora was still trapped under the vampire, an idea formed in her head on how she was to get out... it was suicidal, but it was better than nothing.

**X**

Driving through the gates of Crowley's home, Sora parked the mustang across the fountain and got out only to be greeted by demon guards who recognized her on site despite her hair in disarray, cuts and scratches covering parts of her body and her clothes slightly torn. Making sure that the car was locked before stepping on foot into Crowley's estate, Sora followed the demon guards into the building to his usual room that he uses for business.

Sora knocked twice and without missing a beat, "Come in." Sora walked right in and closed the door behind her and stood near the door. "You look like you've just walked right out of a paper shredder, love."

"A vampire." Sora simply said, making an attempt to control her temper. "You know how I feel about vampires."

"I had no idea. Besides I knew you could handle yourself, so is the pest taken care of?"

Sora let out an irritated sigh but composed herself, "Yes, it's killed and disposed of." In the same moment Sora's phone began ringing and without taking it out the hunter knew who it was, the ringtone was a music box version of Moonlight Sonata and it was the ringtone Sora used when X calls.

"Go ahead and answer it," Crowley gave Sora permission, frankly amused at how she was going to fare talking to whoever was calling while she was with a demon.

Sora pulled the phone out of her pocket and answered it, "Yello?"

"_Hey Sora, how's everything going with your friend?"_ X asked, checking up on Sora.

"Um, it's going fine; I ended up having to exorcise a ghost though." Sora lied, slowly turning away from Crowley. "Other than that..." Slow classical music began playing which made Sora jump and turn to see that Crowley had turned on a stereo.

"_Sora... Are you.. on a date?"_

"No! I'm not on a date! That music..."

"Sora, your food's getting cold." Crowley spoke, dropping his accent momentarily.

The hunter then glared at Crowley while trying to silently tell him to shut up. "My friend set me up on a blind date, but didn't tell me it was a date. She said that we were going to the mall and hang out but once we got there and met up with her guy friend she abandoned me and said 'Enjoy your date!'"

"_You got some friend,_"

"Tell me about it." Sora replied back, covering her other ear from the classical music, "I'll be back in a day or two, so in the meantime please don't go looking for trouble."

"So Sora, how about we go back to my place so we can get to know each other a bit better."

"_I'll leave you to your date._"

"See ya when I get home." Sora closed her phone to end the call and gave Crowley an annoyed glare. "Did you really have to do that?"

"It was fun to watch you squirm." Crowley rebounded with a cocky look on his face as he turned off the stereo, went behind his desk and placed a briefcase on top. "Your payment."

Normally Sora wouldn't walk remotely close to the demon unless he was behind his desk or near his liquor cabinet, but in a slight rush to get out of the mansion the hunter walked up to the money filled briefcase, took it knowing that Crowley was handing it to her, and just as she was about to walk out the door. "Why not stay for a bit, love? Perhaps we could get well acquainted with one another, so we don't have all this tension in the air."

Sora rolled her eyes at the 'suggestion', "I'd rather not."

With that the hunter left the premises and started heading back to the manor.


	3. The Vessels of Lucifer's Fallen pt1

**Vessels of Lucifer's Fallen**

_'And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell. As he breaks, so shall it break.'_

**Unknown, Texas, 09/XX/08**

X had heard from the banged up Dean and the angel Castiel about the breaking of the first seal on Lucifer's cage. Along the grapevine she heard that only sixty-six needs to be broken but there were six hundred possible seals so figuring out which ones Lilith was going to break made it that much harder to pinpoint.

The hunter cursed under her breath realizing what Crowley had told her long ago was all coming true and every day more and more seals were breaking. X had just finished up with a case involving a rogue skinwalker and was heading back to the manor where everything hopefully was still standing as well as her team.

Arriving at the manor just before nightfall, X parked her bike next to the red mustang parked in the driveway and took off her helmet as she headed towards the door. Though before she could get to the door her team mate, and mother hen of the group, Sora opened the door for X and waited for her to enter and see what damage had been done this time. Apparently, once X stepped foot in the manor there was dinner on the table; a dinner consisting of lasagna and garlic bread.

"Time to get you cleaned up and then we can eat." Sora told the hunter as she closed the door behind X and went straight to the bathroom where the first aid kit was kept.

Knowing the drill all too well, X grabbed a chair from the island table, placed it close to the living room and sat down waiting for Sora to get back. As soon as she got back with the first aid kit in hand the oldest of the hunter team began patching X up.

"So X, what was the latest hunt?" Wolf asked out of curiosity as she leaned over the couch to look at her.

"Just a skinwalker, it's no big deal."

X was about to turn to look at Wolf to answer her but Sora made her keep still. "No moving X, unless you'd like some rubbing alcohol in your eye."

"Isn't that the creature that can change into a dog?" Wolf asked once more.

"Yes, Wolf you're supposed to know this."

"I'm sorry, Sora and Monarch are the main researchers here and I tend to mix up a werewolf and a skinwalker."

Sora and Monarch chuckled at what the youngest hunter said and without skipping a beat Monarch told Wolf, "The easiest way to differentiate a werewolf and a skinwalker is that a werewolf unwillingly transforms under the full moon while the skinwalker can change at will but into the form of a domesticated dog."

"I shall remember that for future reference."

While Monarch was informing Wolf about the similarities and few differences between werewolves and skinwalkers, Sora was just finishing up tending to X's wounds which weren't all that serious. Once she was done Sora patted X on the back telling her that she was done, taking a few minutes to change into clean clothes the team sat at the table all too ready to eat.

"You should've been here X, Sora was so adamant on making dinner that she kicked Master Chef Monarch out of the kitchen." Wolf laughed as she got her slice of lasagna and a piece of garlic bread.

"I offered to help out but she just kept pushing me out of the kitchen."

"Sorry, but I wanted to make dinner without any help or assistance." Sora argued in her defense after getting her piece, "So forgive me for wanting to cook for a change."

From there the team continued to eat and make conversation about hunts, what would be the next list of items to shop for when money comes in and what other things to learn now that angels decided to show up after thousands of years.

**Hell, 08/XX/08**

"Brothers..." A voice called out and soon after the call seven figures appeared, "The time has come for me to rise out of Hell. The first seal has been broken, as my loyal warriors, I need you to go on Earth and aid in breaking the rest of the seals."

The seven figures knelt down to the voice coming from the cage in front of them and all nodded, understanding their task that had been given to them. Before they could leave the voice spoke again and within the cage a six winged figure revealed himself.

"Remember... Only sixty-six of the six hundred seals need to be broken. When it comes down to the last one, you know what needs to be done."

Once the figure finished speaking the seven figures disappeared from sight leaving the winged figure in the cage alone, surrounded by darkness and hellfire.

**Unknown, Texas, 9/XX/08**

Dinner ended without any interruption and even after everything was cleaned up there were no calls requesting the hunter's services. The time getting close to nine Wolf was the first to leave the living room, excusing herself by saying that she should study up on lore, which was where Sora offered a book and told the youngest hunter where to find it. From there Monarch and Sora held X hostage in the living room while trying to get her caught up on pop culture while also avoiding both horrible movies and movies that had monsters that were a far cry from what they were used to fighting.

Though while watching the movie 'Shutter' Sora and Monarch had to pause the movie several times to make sure X had questions answered. It didn't bother the two hunters because they've seen the movie a couple of times when things were moving slow.

"Okay, just so I'm getting everything straight; the ghost girl that keeps following the guy is really a girl who had a crush on him but he didn't like her so he got her drunk and let his friend do what they wanted which ended up her dying by committing suicide?"

"Yes, X, that's exactly it." Sora answered after taking a sip of her glass of tea.

"Except Ben was only taking the pictures to use as blackmail so Megumi would leave him alone but his friends got carried away." Monarch added in as he turned off the movie once it was over. "I'm heading off to bed, night."

"Night, Monarch." Both girls replied back as Sora got up to put the DVD back in its case, "So X, want to sit through another or is that enough excitement for the night?"

"You can go to bed if you want, I won't be too far behind."

The eldest hunter placed the DVD case back where she had it and left for her room with just a low 'night' said on her part.

After Sora went back to her room, she looked to see that several books from her shelf were missing and just shook her head while letting out a small chuckle. Changing into her pajamas which was just a tank top and shorts Sora climbed into bed but instead of sleeping, she reached over to her nightstand to grab her mp3 player and listened to music.

With only one light on in hers and X's room, Wolf had several books open on her bed as she was taking down notes on pieces of paper that were sprawled everywhere. One book she had near her was on the topic of vampires and their psychic counterparts another was on ghosts while the one in her lap was on the subject of werewolves and skinwalkers. Taking a break from her research cramming Wolf took the book off her lap and leaned back against the pillows, unconsciously her eyes kept wandering to the open book on ghosts, spirits and poltergeists. Even though it had been two years since her run-in with the supernatural and her meeting X in that ghost town, even with her survival skills she wondered how she survived in that town while others before her had perished.

"It was because of me." a voice rang in the room causing Wolf to jump and dive for the nearest weapon which was a rock salt loaded shotgun. But when she checked to see if it was fully loaded and turned to the supposed source of the voice, the young hunter was face to face with... herself?

"What the?"

"This was the only form I could think of to appear as; I figured that you wouldn't shoot yourself." The look-a-like spoke in Wolf's voice.

_'This can't be a ghost, ghosts can't change their appearance but this thing looks too real.'_ Wolf got up but still had the gun aimed at the look-a-like, rock salt bullets don't kill but it'll hurt like hell.

"I'm not a shifter, ghost, or any monster." Wolf's doppelganger spoke as she picked up a closed book on her bed, "It's such a shame for you to be the... baby of the group."

"I'm not a baby; I can handle myself just as well as everyone else." Wolf defended herself then quickly demanded, "And who the hell are you anyway!"

"I am Baliel." The being introduced herself then chided, "If you can handle yourself then why are you reading material you already know? Is it that you're inept in the department that both Monarch and Sora excel in and feel the need to be their equal?"

Wolf was at a loss for words as she lowered the shotgun and just looked at the pile of books and papers on her bed. It wasn't that she wasn't a good hunter, she just did things her own way up to a point and she had yet to go on a solo hunt, not that there was a reason to since the team worked better together. In truth, the reason for her research is to better fortify the knowledge so whenever she'd go on a hunt she'd be surer of what she was hunting. Besides she was nineteen, an adult, but the matter that kept running through her mind was how her doppelganger was the reason she survived the ghost town back then.

"You said that I survived because of you. Care to elaborate on that?" Wolf asked of her, putting the gun down but leaned it against her bed for easy access in case things turned ugly.

"It's just how it is, whether you've known it or not I've been with you. From when you made your decision to run away from home to living up till X-Night rescued you." Baliel moved several books and papers aside so she could sit on the bed, "I was that little voice that encouraged your decisions, helped you make all the right choices that aided in your survival."

Wolf then thought back to that time and remembered that she almost had some close calls where she was almost caught, "Then explain how several times I was almost found by those ghosts?"

The doppelganger merely looked up at her, "I was stepping back allowing you to make your choices, if things had gotten too bad I would've stepped in but you were doing just fine."

Even though the doppelganger named Baliel had looked like her, sounded like her and seemed to know what she'd been through Wolf refused to believe the person or thing in front of her. For all she knew it could be a trick, the thing in front of her could be deceiving her for its own ulterior motive.

A chuckle broke the silence and Wolf's train of thought and the look-a-like stood up and looked at her, "Dear Wolf, I would never lie to you. Hurting you would be the last thing I would ever do."

Then before Wolf could even comprehend what was happening as Baliel suddenly pulled Wolf into an embrace. Every thought in the young hunter's mind was to push her away but something seemed to stop her, but another thing that stopped Wolf from getting away from the look-a-like was what she whispered in her ear. What her doppelganger had whispered seemed to stop Wolf and held her close while unseen to the human eye two black charred wings emerged from her back and wrapped around Wolf.

"I can help you, but I'll need your consent." Baliel spoke in a soft tone, "Just say yes to me and I'll make sure that you won't have to rely on anyone anymore."

Not looking at who had held her close Wolf nodded then uttered, "Yes... I consent."

Not knowing who she'd given her consent to the look-a-like shined a dull light to where not even a silhouette could be seen and as quickly as it appeared it disappeared into Wolf's body. As the light faded Wolf, or rather Baliel, stretched out her body as if she was just now growing accustomed to it. Looking at the bed Baliel snapped her fingers and instantly all the books were returned from where Wolf gotten them and the papers were stacked on the nightstand.

"Alright, Balan, Sammael you have one shot, you better do it now." Baliel spoke to an unseen presence.

**~X~**

Listening to music for what seemed to be an hour Sora turned off her mp3 player and just as she went to put it back on her nightstand she saw someone out of her peripheral vision. Trying her best not to allow her mind to run away Sora picked up a small bottle of salt that she kept close just in case, popped off the cork and threw the contents at the person Sora had seen.

"Now that was unnecessary." The figure spoke in a voice Sora was all too familiar with as she brushed the salt off.

"No, no, no, no, no! This is not happening again!" In a slow rising panic the eldest hunter scrambled out of her bed, grabbed a silver blade that was on her book shelf and turned towards the figure. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica..."

The figure chuckled, unaffected by the Rituale Romanum, and stepped into the light coming from the window to reveal that it was in the form of her mother whose been dead for three years. "Now sweetie, is that any way to treat your mother?"

"You're not my mom! My mom's been dead for three years," Sora tried to remain calm and control how loud she spoke just in case anyone in the manor was still awake and she'd really was hallucinating.

"I know." That one phrase made Sora look at the being that took on her mother's appearance with confusion, "I thought that by taking this form it would be much easier to talk to you, but I guess it did more harm than good."

"No shit Sherlock!"

"I prefer the name Balan, if you don't mind." the imposter known as Balan introduced him/herself.

_'Balan?'_ Sora just looked at the being in front of her, "Why does that name sound so familiar?" She didn't realize that she thought out loud.

Balan shrugged her shoulders as she moved closer to Sora and managed to take her knife away. At that same moment she tried to get it back but the being known as Balan stopped her and then lead Sora back to her bed so she could sit down and take everything in.

"I don't mean to open old wounds but losing your mother, the one you spent the majority of your life with, to something as horrible as vampires it must've been tough to get over."

Getting situated on the bed Sora grabbed one of her pillows and placed it on her lap so she could have something to hold, "I'm not having any more nightmares about it, they stopped a little after the second year of my new life. Nothing was going to bring her back and even if I could, I couldn't go back to my normal life. Everything about my old life ended the moment my mom and I were ambushed by those vamps and I was forced to watch them kill my mother."

Balan placed her hand on Sora's shoulder as if to comfort her even though she implied that she was better, "It's such a shame that you couldn't have your revenge against those who did you wrong."

"Jarenson and his family are dead and that's all that matters." Sora spoke all too fast, this wasn't a conversation she wanted to have since it took her quite a long time and many distractions to bury that memory.

Balan snickered at how quickly Sora wanted to dismiss the conversation and how she believed that just because the vampire's pack is dead means that the hunter has no want for vengeance. "Are you sure about that Sora? Because in this world, nothing is really what it seems."

Sora looked at Balan with a 'what are you getting at?' look and asked, "So what you're saying is that you're not what you seem to be either?" She then tried to take her knife back but Balan kept it out of her reach, "For all I know you could be a ghoul, though how you gotten all the way from Florida to Texas is an interesting feat."

Balan let out an exasperated sigh as she took the silver knife and ran the blade across her open palm, though since she wasn't really possessing a body she had to trick Sora into thinking that blood really ran down her hand. Handing the knife back to the hunter, Sora hesitantly took it back now trying to figure out what the hell Balan was and with the silver test done there was no possible way that the being in front of her was a ghoul or a shape-shifter. Thinking back to what X had told her and the others about angels for all Sora knew this Balan could be an angel.

"Before you start jumping the gun, I am an angel... just not connected to Heaven."

"So you're what? A Fallen?"

"You can say that, but think about how I fell from Heaven..."

"I know the story; those who sided with Lucifer during the rebellion fell from Heaven."

Balan took a short breath, almost seemed irritated at the short hand version of the story about how Lucifer fell, but held it back and regained her composure. "That's one way of telling it, another would be that when God created Lucifer he knew that he would love him too much then cast him down when humans were brought into the world." Balan looked at Sora, "In the end, the blame falls on God; he's the one who created everything and set all the pieces in motion."

"And your point?"

"Your mother's death... It was all a part of God's grand design." Balan acted as if she was revealing a secret to Sora and nearly relished the look Sora had on her face as her mind was piecing the information together. "It was him that tore your life to shreds, the reason why you can't go back and face your family who are still alive."

It was taking everything in Sora's power not to lash out or allow her tears to fall, "But... why? What was it all for? Why did I have to lose my mother?" Sora bolted to her feet and grabbed Balan by the front of her shirt and jerked her close, "What is so goddamn important that my life had to be ripped apart?"

Balan allowed herself to be roughly handled by Sora. The being was purposely pushing Sora into her current state of anger and bringing up her repressed depression. Made it that much easier to manipulate someone to do what you asked. The being looked over at the red glowing clock on Sora's nightstand to see that the time was thirty minutes after eleven. Time was of the essence; she needed Sora's consent and fast.

**~X~**

Monarch stirred in his sleep, slowly waking up from a dream he doesn't recall right off the bat. Something telling the hunter to wake up Monarch slowly opened his eyes; in the little light shining in the room Monarch's eyes focused just enough to see a kid standing at the end of his bed.

The only male hunter of the group froze upon seeing the kid, he hoped to whatever god was out there that the kid was a sleep-induced hallucination... Until, she spoke.

"Hello Monarch." The child then walked around the bed until she was at Monarch's side. "I see you're doing well, considering that you allowed yourself to be possessed by something as tainted as a demon."

Monarch flinched slightly, practically feeling the venom in the child's voice after mentioning the word 'demon'. "I couldn't help it, it took me over, controlled me. It wasn't my fault you died!"

"You may say it's not your fault that this child died, but it still doesn't excuse the fact that you didn't regain control over yourself once the demon started killing."

It'd taken the hunter only a few seconds to catch that the child in front of him wasn't the one he killed during his demonic possession, at least it was her entirely, just her image. "Who are you?"

"Sammael," In an instant Sammael changed his image to another one Monarch's demon possessed victims. "And you're the boy who has blood on his hands and a tainted soul thanks to a weak demon."

"That was three years ago, I've saved more people than that demon has killed inside of me!"

"And you believe that that grants you a clean slate?" Sammael scoffed as he walked around the room, "Oh no, Monarch it doesn't, that blood is going to be on your hands for the rest of your life."

Fed up with what Sammael was throwing at him; Monarch got up, grabbed the being by his shirt and slammed him against the nearest wall. For three years Monarch's lived with the guilt that a demon used him as a puppet to killed innocent people just for kicks and since his exorcism he's done everything in his power to make sure he never got possessed again and saved as many people as he could. Then after those three years some being going by the name of 'Sammael' goes and brings up everything he went through and pins the blame on him, even though X went through the trouble of telling Monarch it wasn't his fault and making sure that it was reinforced in his head.

After Monarch had slammed Sammael against the wall behind him, he just laughed it off, "You see, whether you know it or not that demon left a little piece of itself behind. All that anger, just dying to be let out."

"Nothing of that monster is left in me, it's all back in Hell where it belongs!"

Sammael's gaze was as cold as ice, he grabbed Monarch's right hand and pried it off of him without showing any effort. "Is that what you tell yourself every night? That you've been scrubbed clean of that demonic filth." Releasing Monarch's hand Sammael pried the other one off with less effort, "Do you really believe that by saving people you're paying your penance?" The being's gaze turned soft, "I do not expect forgiveness for being harsh with my words but it needed to be said, to disillusion you from the lies you've been telling yourself for so long."

Monarch deviate his eyes to the floor and at that exact moment as a random car passed the manor, the lights from its headlights shone in the room for only a second, but that second revealed a silhouette in the shape of wings that seemed attached to the being in front of him. Careful not to alert Sammael of what he discovered Monarch turned to walk towards the door, feigning fatigue he 'bumped' into the desk in his room only to swipe the pocket knife he had laying there. Sammael thought nothing of the man's actions, assuming that he was slowly wearing the hunter down.

"I can help you Monarch. I can absolve the sins the demon had made you commit, all I need is your consent."

"If what you said before was true, about how I'm tainted for the rest of my life, then how could you possibly erase all of it?" Monarch asked, making sure to keep his movements subtle he sliced his hand with the pocket knife and began drawing an Enochian banishing sigil he found through hours of agonizing research.

Sammael chuckled, "If I were a mortal man then it wouldn't make a difference, but seeing as I'm an angel I can perform miracles. But only is you'll allow me, so please Monarch make the right decision."

As Monarch was about to tell the angel off; a loud, shrill scream resonated throughout the manor. In that instant the hunter turned towards Sammael and slammed his bloodied hand against the sigil which activated, sending him away from the manor. Praying that the worst hasn't happened to his friends and comrades, Monarch retraced the sigil with his blood and left his room to find Wolf and Sora in the hallway leading out into the dining room, but something about them didn't seem right.

"You all settled in Sammael?" Wolf asked, but it wasn't Wolf at all.

Monarch kept quiet as he looked towards Sora who was leering at him, "Baliel... This is his vessel." Sora, or whoever had possessed her, stepped towards him, "Where is Sammael."

"Gone." From the moment he told the two of Sammael's disappearance, he let out an apology under his breath and activated the sigil once more, banishing the beings that took residence inside his friends.

From the time it took X to rush over to Monarch and demand what happened, the hunter that avoided possession finally wrapped his mind around what he had done. Gripping the door in his hand seemed to be the one thing that kept him up as he tried to get the right words formed in his head so he could tell X what had happened.

"Monarch, talk to me!" X grabbed Monarch by his shoulders to shake him to his senses. "What the hell is going on?!"

"They're gone..." was all Monarch managed to get out, his grip on the door turned his knuckles white from how hard he was grasping it.

"What do you mean 'they're gone' Monarch."

"It's just what I'm saying X! They're gone, angels possessed them!" He yelled, slamming the door he had in his grip shut and buried his hands in his hair, breaking X's hold on his shoulders, gripping it by the handfuls, "I thought that by banishing the angels they would leave Sora and Wolf here but they're gone."

X froze at the news, her friends, the very people she saved were gone because of angels. First there were demons breaking the seals on Lucifer's cage to bring on the apocalypse, angels reappearing, and now her comrades being taken by angels. None of that could've been any sort of coincidence, something big was going on and she didn't like how her friends were involved.

"Monarch, we'll get them back. One way or another we'll get Sora and Wolf back safe and sound." X reassured the distressed hunter. Going towards her room to gather a couple of items X dug out her cell phone from her pants pocket and dialed a number, once the person on the other end picked up X spoke, "Gabriel, I need some help." X waited for him to ask what kind, "I want to know how to track down a couple of angels."


	4. The Vessels of Lucifer's Fallen pt2

The Vessels of Lucifer's Fallen pt.2

**Night/early morning. Unknown, Texas. 05/XX/09**

It had been several hours since X had called the Archangel Gabriel for help with her unexpected angel problem. It was still dark outside even though it was the early hours of the morning, but X and Monarch stayed up; though the reasons were different than one another's. After X managed to calm Monarch down he began pouring over more angel lore in hopes of finding something that'll help them get their two missing comrades back, X couldn't blame him she too wanted to go out and find Sora and Wolf but the problem is that they didn't know where to start.

Just in case X had prepared a small summoning ritual in the center of her room, but two crucial parts were missing; the identity of what had possessed her friends and how to trap and get rid of them. At first X didn't want to send a prayer to Gabriel because no one on her team had yet known about her relationship with the archangel, which was why the supernatural hunter opted to call him but as time went by the prayer option was looking more and more viable.

Just as X decided to screw it and pray to Gabriel she heard the familiar sound of wings flapping in the air. "Hey Emmy, sorry it took so long. I was in the middle of screwing with a bunch of jerks when I got your call and I must say; you have no idea the magnitude of your problem really is."

"Please Gabriel, this is important... My friends, Sora and Wolf, were taken or possessed by angels."

Gabriel manifested a cherry sucker out of thin air and popped it in his mouth, "I kinda figured it had something to do with your 'family' from how urgent your voice was." He then made the piece of candy disappear and looked dead serious, "Now to get a better grasp on what you're needing, we'll see if it can be done, because sister I'll tell you this; It's nowhere near easy to track down just any angel."

X had a feeling that her search was going to be difficult but it was to be expected. "I know this won't help whatsoever, but-"

"The angels that were here went by the names; Baliel and Sammael," Monarch's voice interrupted X, he stood at the open door of X's room looking tired but determined as well as an underlying anger starting to resonate. "There was a third but it never said its name."

When X looked back to Gabriel, she seen that his eyes slightly widened, it was as if he wasn't expecting to hear those particular names. The hunter knew she had a lot to explain to Monarch when all was said and done, but now wasn't the time for that.

"Alright, we have two of the three angels. That should make things a lot easier... right?" X wanted to keep her hope that it was going to be easy but the look on the archangel's face was saying something else entirely.

"Emerald Eyes, your problem just got a whole lot worse." That was the one thing X did not want to hear coming out of the archangel's mouth, "Those two; Baliel and Sammael... They aren't angels."

"Then what the hell are they?!" Monarch demanded, he stepped into the room and tried to recompose himself but the events that happened were still fresh in his mind.

Gabriel paid no mind to the hunter's outburst as he answered, "To rephrase what I had said before, Baliel and Sammael aren't angels, they're Fallen angels. Strong ones at that, since they're two of seven of Lucifer's personal warriors. The third is most likely another one of the seven."

"Is there a way to force the Fallen out of Sora and Wolf? I mean, is it possible to get rid of the Fallen without harming our friends?" Monarch asked, it was a question that X wanted answered as well seeing as things were already looking grim.

The archangel let out a short sigh as he pulled up a chair and sat down, "Before we get into that, I should tell you this; You two better hope that your friends are either their predestined vessels or strong enough to hold their tainted grace. If they're not either of the two, those Fallen are going to be ripping your friends apart at the seams and keep riding them until they fall apart and I mean 'fall apart' in the literal sense."

Now it was one thing to hear that fallen angels had entered their home and possessed two of their dear friends, but it was another that the said beings could tear them apart if they're not their vessels. Monarch had went back on the slow spiral down into panic while X tried to keep her mask on, but since her family was at risk, it was slowly coming undone. Once the news fully sank in, it was now all a matter of time to find the two.

Before she spoke, X composed herself and put on an air of determination and seriousness, "Gabriel... Is there a way to save them?"

Gabriel grinned, "Yes, but it won't be easy."

**~X~**

**Day. Key West, Florida. 05/XX/09**

Out away from civilization and into the prairie portion of the national part, Balan and Baliel looked out into the terrain. While Balan was deep in thought, or looked like she was deep in thought, Baliel ventured off towards a couple of plants. The moment the Fallen stepped close to a bush of plumbagos, the reptilian wildlife that happened to be there rapidly scurried away. From the moment the two Fallen had arrived it seemed that all signs of animal life had hushed, it was as if they knew that the sudden presence were there for their lives.

Even though the silence had not bothered the two interlopers, Baliel knelt down in front of the white flowers, grabbed a couple by the stem and not a second passed that the whole bush withered and died. The Fallen possessing the youngest hunter looked over her shoulder to find Balan where she left her and stood up after catching a red, white and blue wasp when she ventured towards an Oleander plant.

"Balan," Baliel called out in a sing-song voice, "We have work to do."

Balan let out a sigh, knowing perfectly well of what they were supposed to do on Earth, "I'm going to go find Lilith and see if she's heard from Alastair about warding off Heaven's followers." Balan turned to leave but stopped short, "I trust that you have this seal taken care of?"

"You know I will." To prove to Balan that she has the duty of making ten species in the Key West extinct taken care of, a faint glow engulfed her hand and when she opened the wasp that was in there had died.

"Good."

Upon hearing and seeing the Baliel had the current seal under control; Balan uttered a few words in the Enochian language. A grin formed on her face as she turned towards the west, without another word to Baliel, Balan took her leave, leaving the sound of flapping wings behind.

**~X~**

**St. Mary's Convent, Ilchester Maryland. 05/XX/09**

Since the massacre in 1972 the convent has been long shut down and it was all thanks to a priest possessed by a Fallen. On the outside the convent that held the appearance similar to that of a manor, looked weatherworn and was starting to fall into disrepair. It wouldn't be unusual to see such a place in that condition, if it hadn't been inhabited by some human life in thirty-seven years.

At the front doors of the convent Balan opened the doors with the use of telepathy and found that the lobby of the convent was empty. Paying no mind to the remnants of spirits that could've lingered because of Azazel, the Fallen inhabiting the hunter's body made her way down into the catacombs and it was there she found Lilith; the first demon in creation.

"And here I was under the impression that you wanted to live as a child."

Lilith turned to Balan after placing an object onto the altar in front of her, "My choice in meatsuits is no concern of yours."

Balan smirked as she took a stance and crossed her arms, "Just making an observation. Now ask the question that's been in your little head since my arrival."

Lilith kept her cool as well as a straight face against the Fallen and decided to entertain her guest. "Would the question happen to be; why are you here? When you could be out there breaking seals like a good warrior."

Balan glowered at the demon, it was one thing to be ordered by Lucifer but to be ordered by a demon was out of the question. "You don't give me orders Lilith. I just came by to see if you heard word from Alastair about warding the targeted seals against angels."

Lilith strode from one side of the room to the next, not breaking eye contact with the Fallen, "You haven't heard."

"Heard what?"

"Alastair's dead; killed by Sam Winchester." Lilith looked slightly disappointed when Balan had a deadpan expression on her face; it was as if she wasn't affected by hearing of a Fallen's death.

At the mention of the young Winchester's name Balan had a slight perplexed look on her face as she tilted her head to the side, "The Boy King?"

All Lilith did in response was nod then went back to work on preparing the altar. Doing what she came to the convent to do, Balan grabbed an abandoned book that happened to be lying on the floor of the catacomb, placed her hand on the inside cover of the book and using her powers she etched sigils on the book.

After the necessary sigils were in the book with a description on what they were for Balan dropped the book on the floor and kicked it towards Lilith. "Use those sigils if you don't want Heaven's little soldiers to interfere."

Lilith bent down, picked up the book and placed it on the far edge of the altar, "You don't have to tell me. Now you just make sure that you and the other remaining warriors do their job."

Balan scoffed as she turned towards the door leading out of the room, "You just make sure that you serve your purpose."

Without allowing Lilith to counter Balan's comment, the Fallen left the convent and the state altogether.

**~X~**

**Unknown Texas, 05/XX/09**

After a long talk with the trickster/archangel, X and Monarch had just finished placing Enochian sigils in their home, purposely leaving out a few so Gabriel can re-enter the manor with supplies. Once the necessary sigils were in place X took off to her room to gather weapons just in case the fallen possessing her friends decide to summon reinforcements, if that was actually possible but couldn't hurt to be safe. Returning downstairs with a small duffle bag that looked barely packed X had seen Monarch filling up canteens with holy water mixed with salt and kept several more aside on the island table.

"You think we'll be encountering demons when all this goes down?"

At first Monarch didn't say anything to X but once he finished filling a canteen he looked at her, "Well we're dealing with fallen angels, so who's to say that they haven't already gotten demons waiting at their beck and call?" Monarch capped the holy water filled canteen and moved it to the side with the other filled ones. "Also, since when are you all buddy-buddy with an angel? How the hell do you know that he's not with the fallen?"

"Gabriel's not with the fallen, if he was why would he help us by getting the items to trap one?" X didn't like what Monarch was insinuating, but she couldn't blame him because they weren't really on the side of the angels. "I met Gabriel two years ago, but during our first meeting he was using the identity of the Norse demi-god, Loki. I didn't find out he was an archangel until a month later when we faced that Tulpa in Deadwood and Sora got sent to the hospital."

Monarch let his comrade explain how she met the angel but he still didn't want to believe that Gabriel is an ally of sorts, "Wait, so you got Gabriel to heal Sora?"

X nodded, "We had a deal that didn't cost me anything; He heals Sora and I keep quiet about 'Loki' being the archangel Gabriel."

"And that's it?" Monarch had a feeling that there was more to the deal than what X was telling him but it was something that was going to have to wait till he and X got their friends back.

X nodded and at the exact moment she did Gabriel appeared back inside the manor with two stone jugs and when the archangel set the jugs down there was an audible swishing coming from the inside. X went over to the island table where Gabriel had set down the jugs and lifted the lid to one of them only to back away when whatever liquid was inside had hit her sense of smell hard.

"Here I present you with holy oil, flown Archangel Express from Jerusalem." He then patted one of the stone jugs, "All you need to do is make a circle with this stuff and once your fallen angel is inside, set it on fire and it will trap them inside. They can't get out unless they want to burn their vessels to a crisp, but you guys don't want that so you're gonna need another trap to tether the fallen so they don't leap into the holy fire."

Monarch looked at Gabriel before taking one of the stone jugs and an empty canteen, "How much of this oil would be sufficient to make the ring?"

"Well it would have to be large enough to make sure that the sigil isn't anywhere near the fire," The archangel pulled a chocolate bar out of thin air, took a bite out of it and added in mid-chew, "To make it easy on yourselves you would need to make the sigil roughly around the size of half that couch." Gabriel pointed to the couch that was in front of the TV. "It won't give them that much room to move which is what you want."

X picked up her duffle bag and began putting half of the canteens of holy water inside and waited for Monarch to fill up the empty ones with the holy oil. "I know an abandoned house we can use for summoning the two, also Gabe would it be best to make sure that we deal with the two one at a time or try to both at once?"

"Even though the fallen angels aren't connected to Heaven, they still have their powers so if I were you guys, I wouldn't try to go after them both. They can still use their powers when they're trapped in the ring of holy fire, but the sigil should dampen their power a bit, so just watch out."

Keeping in mind of what the fallen could possibly do, X helped Monarch fill up the remaining canteens with holy oil and packed them in the bag. Monarch had a small knapsack that metallic clinking was heard from it whenever he moved it, the hunter told X that he packed some spray paint along with several sticks of chalk just in case the cans weren't going to be enough. Making no arguments or comments the two proceeded to pack the mustang after X told Gabriel where the house was at and to meet them there so they could set up the traps.

Once the car was packed Monarch got into the driver's side, nearly expecting X to get in the passenger seat until he seen her get on her bike in his rear view. "Don't you think we should ride over there together?" He asked right after he got out of the car only to see that X-Night had started her bike.

"I'll lead you over there; we don't have time to lose."

With that being said X revved up Midnight Sky and began taking off, leaving Monarch only a few seconds to start up the red mustang and begin tailing X.

**~X~**

**New York City, New York. 5/XX/08**

Balan stood outside one of New York City's middle schools and watched as recess was in progress. Seeing that the teachers outside in the school yard were more focused on the children and their colleagues, it gave Balan the chance to slip inside the building undetected. The inside of the school was quiet aside from the muffled speech of other teachers teaching their class and the clicking of Balan's newly acquired dress shoes on the vinyl composite floors.

Before arriving to the school Balan had to swipe some clothes to properly blend in with the people in the building. Blending in with the humans wasn't what the fallen planned to do at first when she knew which seal she chose to break, but after looking through Sora's memories Balan had changed up her plan to avoid any unnecessary confrontation. To any teachers or faculty that were walking the halls Balan would appear as either a sub or a new teacher/administrator and thanks to X training Sora in the art of deception Balan knew just what to say to get a hold of every teacher's class roster.

Adjusting the fake glasses Balan wore on her face to better appear as a faculty admin, the fallen's eyes skimmed the lines of classes and homerooms on the paper. With a pen she swiped from the office Balan crossed off several teachers that seemed to have a low number of students while others were marked with a question mark and a half star.

_'At this rate I'll have to either control two teachers or use one and target two or three classes.'_ Balan calculated as she twirled the pen in her hand, _'But then there's the risk of another teacher coming in and try to stop the puppet or calling the authorities and they mess up my plan before the seal breaks.'_ Making more marks on the rosters Balan smiled after readjusting her glasses once more, "This should work out nicely."

"Miss, is there anything I can help you with?" A man asked and when Balan looked up she could tell he was a teacher which made everything easier and her scheme was practically pulling itself together.

"No thank you, I was just making rounds to see that each classroom as an adequate number of students without reaching the maximum capacity. I was sent by the school board to do an evaluation on the classes." Balan spoke with the utmost professionalism, playing her role to the best of her ability. "And you would happen to be?"

The man quickly had a shocked look on his face and held out his hand, "I'm Mr. Leonard Gerowski. We weren't informed that there was an evaluation today, especially this late."

Balan shook the man's hand after he introduced himself, "Caroline Mairfield." the fallen chose to introduce herself using a fake name then explained her being at the school, "I had just come from another middle school which took longer than I thought to process the data and I decided to come here and finish up the job."

While Mr. Gerowski kept talking Balan looked at the clipboard and found his name and class roster which had twenty-four students. Shifting the roster up discreetly to look at the school map she found that his classroom was next to another with a class of twenty-four, only eighteen shy of the goal she looked at the rosters and marked the three target classes and circling Gerowski's name.

"Mr. Gerowski, do you feel like you're able to properly teach your lessons in a class of twenty-four?"

Looking around to see if any supervisors were around or the principal he answered, "On some days I'm able to but with a class that big it's rather challenging to make sure all my students are on the same page. With a class that size there are not enough hours in each class to properly get one on one with the students to see if they're struggling."

"That's too bad, if only there was a way to cut down the class to size." Balan stode by the teacher and touched his arm thus allowing Balan to plant an idea in his mind.

Mr. Gerowski's eyes began to glaze over; he then looked at Balan and smiled, "I know a way. Thank you for your help." He turned to go back to his classroom and once he went inside he locked the door behind him.

"I'm glad to help." Balan turned to leave until she stopped momentarily when the sound of breaking glass and kids screaming echoed throughout the halls. "Music to my ears." The fallen commented having a content look on her face before vanishing from the school altogether and onto the roof of an apartment building close to the school.

While Balan was watching the massacre like it was an interesting tv show, Baliel appeared out of nowhere right beside the fallen. The two didn't exchange words until the teacher moved onto the next classroom, it was then that Balan began rubbing her temples and looking as if she had gotten a headache.

"Baliel, has your host been giving you grief?"

"Wolfy only stirred after I broke a couple more seals, nothing I couldn't handle." Baliel looked over at Balan's slight pain-stricken form, "Why? Yours giving you trouble?"

Fed up with Sora causing Balan headaches, the fallen took a deep breath allowing her tainted grace to show for a moment and once she exhaled the sullied radiance was gone. "That should keep her quiet for a while."

"It won't be long until Lucifer is freed."

Balan leaned back after she seen the teacher go into the last classroom just as the SWAT team was showing up to handle the situation, "True but more seals still need to break and I don't trust those abominations to get the job done."

Baliel rested her head on Balan's shoulder and grinned, "Then we should get back to work rather than marvel at your handiwork."

Patting Baliel on the head Balan lightly pushed her off and stood up, without word or warning the fallen took off leaving Baliel to see the now blood soaked teacher being escorted out of the school. Seeing that there was nothing left to do the fallen inhabiting the youngest hunter was about to take off until she took another look at the swarm of cops below.

"What would it hurt?"

Concentrating all her focus on one of the SWAT members Baliel's eyes glowed resembling her tainted grace and as soon as the glowing died down gunfire resounded in the air. The fallen continued to watch as the policeman she compelled start killing his team mates as well as any civilian bystanders that just happened to be nearby. As quickly as she became interested in the scene Baliel grew bored and took off to another part of the country.

**~X~**

**Evening. Unknown, Texas. 5/XX/08**

The sun had just set while X and Monarch had begun making preparations, while Monarch was drawing the sigil in the center of the room per Gabriel's instructions X had lit candles to provide light in the abandoned house. By the time Monarch finished with the sigil and poured a ring of holy oil a good foot away from the sigil X had prepared a summoning ritual with all the necessary ingredients.

"Alright before we start this crazy show, I need to know who has the best pronunciation in this room." Gabriel spoke up after he seen that the two hunters finished getting everything set up.

"Does it matter who summons the fallen?" X asked, wondering why Gabriel was asking such a thing.

Gabriel looked at X with the 'Yes, it matters' expression before answering, "Yes because Enochian is a bitch of a language to speak if you're not an angel and if your first language is anything spoken by man."

"I don't suppose you'll be kind enough as to give us a crash course before we summon the fallen here, would you?" Monarch asked hoping that the archangel was indeed going to help them rather than prove his distrust in the angel by not aiding them.

Gabriel leaned against the door behind him and grinned, "Do you really think I'd just leave you guys out to dry? No, so I'm gonna help." Manifesting a pen and notepad out of thin air the archangel scribbled down something on the paper, folded it into a paper airplane and threw it to Monarch.

Monarch opened it to find several lines of Enochian words rather than the symbol; underneath were the pronunciations. "This is the banishing spell?"

"The first line is the summoning spell; the other lines are the banishing spell." Gabriel pointed out then continued, "Though one half of the banishing spell makes the fallen leave the vessel's body while the other sends them to Heaven."

"Shouldn't we send them to Hell instead of Heaven?" X asked, thinking it was odd that Gabriel gave them a spell to send a Fallen angel back up to Heaven, "I mean, since Hell is where they came from it would only make sense to send them back there."

Gabriel shook his head from side to side, "It would make sense if they were demons; Demons originated from Hell, angels were created in Heaven regardless if they had fallen or not. You send a fallen up to Heaven and you're guaranteed that they won't be coming back whereas if you knock them back in Hell they'll just claw their way back up and use more drastic measures to get their vessels back." Bearing a sorrowful look in his eyes the archangel added, "Once a fallen enters Heaven they'll be killed on the spot, there will be no judgment, no banishment and removing their grace."

_'This must be hard for Gabriel; he gave us the tools to practically sentence his kin to death.'_ X could tell that the archangel was going to regret killing the fallen but it was something that had to be done. "I'm sorry Gabe-"

Gabriel raised a hand to X to stop her, "Don't. Just do what needs to be done."

Taking several minutes for Monarch to practice the Enochian spell and getting the pronunciation right with the help of Gabriel along the way he nodded to X telling her that he was going to start. Before Monarch began to utter one word X had pulled out a lighter from her jacket pocket, opened the lid and rested her thumb on the thumbwheel, more than ready to ignite the lighter and set fire to the holy oil when the time was right.

"Ol yolcam a..." Monarch stopped momentarily to look at the paper once more to make sure he didn't skip or accidentally mess up a word to two, "telocvovim merifri, Baliel, noco de Lucifer zamran pambt aspt oi comselh!" With the ending of the summoning spell Monarch lit a match and dropped it into the bowl of ingredients below him to complete the entire ritual.

Seconds passed when the youngest hunter suddenly appeared within the Enochian sigil. "Okay, do you guys know how difficult it is to send a murdering unrepentant soul up into Heaven, let me answer that for you; Not easy, especially when you call me here!" Wolf or rather Baliel spoke; clearly pissed off about being pulled away from her task and when she looked at Monarch she looked happy, "Oh my, you're Sammael's vessel! Have you finally decided to say 'yes' to him?"

Monarch definitely did not expect the fallen to act like way especially regarding to the fallen that he banished, "Not a chance in Hell."

"Listen here you little mud monkey, we did not waste so much time finding Sammael's destined vessel only for you to-" Baliel tried to walk right up to the hunter but was stopped short because of the sigil which she finally had noticed when she looked down after seeing if it was on the ceiling. "Let me out right now."

X made a little humming sound as she began walking towards the ring of holy oil that the fallen had not yet noticed while opening and closing the lighter, "Nah, we'll do this instead." With a turn of her thumb the now open lighter sparked a flame and nonchalantly X threw the lighter on part of the holy oil which ignited immediately.

The shock in Baliel's eyes were seen as the room lit up brighter with the holy fire and she glared at the hunters, not noticing Gabriel in the back, "How did you hairless apes get a hold of holy oil?"

Gabriel decided to take credit for how X and Monarch got possession of the rare angel trapping oil, "That would be moi."

"Gabriel?!" Baliel's fists clenched anger rising and in her fury and betrayal that her own brother would help trap her, she used her still working telekinetic powers to fling a bookcase at the archangel but with a flick of his wrist Gabriel turned it into a fine blue dust before it even hit him. "Brother, why? Why would you... It doesn't make any sense!"

Gabriel just shrugged, blowing off Baliel's outcry as he nodded to Monarch to continue with the spell before Baliel got any ideas. "Ol umb mir a..." Monarch's gaze turned towards the paper again but mostly at the pronunciation key the archangel wrote but that gave the fallen enough time to try to fight back.

Just as the hunter was about to proceed with the spell he was pulled down to the floor and flying right where he was standing a wooden chair collided with the wall. X let out a relieved sigh after saving Monarch from sure injury and a possible knock out, but it didn't help that a table was now heading towards the two. The two hunters quickly moved to avoid the projectiles Baliel was sending their way; Gabriel on the other hand made light work of the many small, fast propelling items that were thrown his way by making them vanish in a mist before they made contact. By the time X and Monarch managed to get on their feet once more the projectiles changed from furniture to fire balls, though they were only in ball form due to Baliel obtaining pieces of wood and setting them aflame.

The flaming projectiles didn't last long when the fallen stopped suddenly, "You know, I don't know why I didn't check before." That stuck the two hunters and archangel odd as they seen Baliel dig through her denim jacket pocket and pull out something silver, "Good think Wolfy here carries this little thing around." Being cheeky Baliel waved the silver pocket knife Wolf normally carried on her person and then opened it.

"Don't you fucking dare!" Monarch yelled, charging towards the circles leaping over the holy fire in the process and successfully knocked the knife from her hand and held Baliel down, "lonsa propsol mad, tliob ils zamran ds eol g yor a daolim-"

Baliel struggled to try to free herself from Monarch's grasp and stop him from continuing the spell by grabbing a hold of the hunter's arm and begin burning him. Monarch hissed in pain and knew that if he allowed Baliel to keep her hold on him he'd end up with serious burns, so breaking her grip the second oldest hunter grabbed one of the fallen's arms, held it down on the ground and jammed the pocket knife as deep as he could in the floor while making sure it caught a good part of her clothing. Breaking Baliel's struggling grip once more he held down her other arm ensuring that the fallen could do anything to cause harm to Wolf or make an attempt at freedom.

"Ixomaxip aspt zirenaiad."

"Hey get out of there! Baliel's forced to leave her vessel!" Gabriel yelled to Monarch, "Cover your eyes, fallen or not, their grace can still burn your eyes out if you look."

Upon finishing up the first half of the spell the hunter had to quickly shield his eyes when a dull shine began showing through Wolf's eyes and mouth. Keeping his eyes covered Monarch dove out of both rings, X keeping her eyes to the ground and using her arm as a shield got over to her comrade to help him regain his bearings. Baliel in her true form began to lash out and scream in her true voice which had to force the two hunters to cover their ears, but as quickly as the screaming came it silenced.

"Don't worry kids; the trickster has got this under control." Gabriel told X and Monarch after they uncovered their ears.

Not waiting for the ringing to die down in his ears Monarch kept his eyes low, holding the paper with the spell on it and spoke, "Dooaip de enai ol adrpan vors sa zonrensg gi, Baliel," Monarch paused feeling a rush of air hit him but not shake him from where he was standing.

"Keep going! I got ya covered." the archangel reassured the temporarily blind hunters as he kept turning any projectile Baliel threw at the two hunters into a gust of air or glitter.

Hearing Gabriel give him the go-ahead Monarch continued, "de ge Enay bagle balzizras. Ioiad, idogio, Ol lava gi."

Upon speaking the final phrase of the spell Baliel shone in a bright light despite her tainted grace and disappeared thus leaving the room in darkness, save for the ring of holy fire that was still lit. X-Night was the first to open her eyes to find that the fallen was gone and Wolf was unconscious inside the two circles, she turned to Gabriel which he nodded to her as if saying 'it's gone' which she then proceeded to dig into the duffle bag to pull out a few canteens of holy water to douse the flames. Monarch blinked a few times after he put his arm down to readjust his eyes to the light of the room being the fire before X extinguished it and send puffs of smoke rising to the ceiling.

"X is Wolf okay?" Monarch asked after he seen X remove the knife from Wolf's jacket and dragged her out of the circle and gently laid her down on the floor.

Worried for her friend regardless of what Gabriel said X checked Wolf's pulse only to find it beating strong which let out a sigh of relief. "She's breathing, so let's count that as her being okay till she-" X felt herself jerk slightly forward and seen that Wolf had grabbed a hold of X's jacket.

"Balan." Wolf gasped, her breathing quickened only for a moment before slowing down, "The other fallen, Balan. Sora."

X held Wolf up as soon as she started talking and hoped that she heard her comrade right, "Balan has Sora, is that what you're saying?" She asked, thinking Wolf would stay conscious long enough to confirm but unfortunately she fell back into unconsciousness. "Wolf! WolfAngel!"

"X!" Monarch shouted to get the hunter's attention away from trying to shake Wolf awake, "We got the fallen's name." He walked over to X, took off his black leather jacket and folded it up to the best of his ability and set it down. He then gently laid Wolf's head down on the makeshift pillow that he used his jacket for after he got X to let her go.

Feeling more determined than ever X got up, retrieved two more canteens of holy oil and began redoing the circle. Monarch stayed by Wolf's side just in case she woke up again or did anything in her sleep, though she kept twitching slightly in her state of unconsciousness and the only man of their group had a feeling that Wolf was having a nightmare about the possession. Luckily, he was able to stop her movements by placing a gently hand on her shoulder and whispering that she's safe now and it's all over, even though they had yet to get Sora back.

"Emmy, you should slow down." Gabriel walked over to X and placed a hand on her shoulder after she had finished pouring new holy oil on the burned out circle and finished getting the ingredients for the summoning ritual ready. "Balan is not going to see this coming, no one is going to warn her so take this time and rest for a moment."

X brushed the archangel's hand off her shoulder, she knew he wasn't going to like that but she didn't need to slow down what she wanted was Sora back safe and sound, "No can do Gabe, I don't want to take any chances of Baliel being able to slip out of Heaven's pearly white gates and warn Balan of what we're doing." Getting the undamaged spray can that Baliel had used as a projectile X went back over to the sigil and fixed any part that looked slightly smudged, better safe than sorry.

The archangel backed off knowing perfectly well that she was on a mission and that he shouldn't get in her way, "Okay Emerald Eyes, just make sure that you're up for this. Balan will most likely put up a fight once she's trapped inside and she'll be just as strong as Baliel was."

X nodded, understanding Gabriel's warning about Balan. "Knowing's half the battle." She then walked over to Monarch and asked for the spell which he handed over the now wrinkled piece of paper.

X walked back towards the two circles, she gripped the cooled down lighter from the extinguished ring of holy fire before she had redone the circle, ready to reignite the oil. She looked back towards Monarch who had picked Wolf up and made sure they were as far as possible without leaving the room while Gabriel remained close by.

Taking a deep breath X looked at the paper briefly and spoke, "Ol yolcam a telocvovim merifri, Balan, noco de Lucifer zamran pambt aspt oi comselh!" The hunter's gaze was focused on the empty circles after X had lit a match and dropped it into the bowl of ingredients used for the ritual.

Seconds seemed like minutes to the hunter the longer the circle remained empty, X was about to repeat the summoning spell again until she heard Sora's voice accompanied by fluttering wings, "Well, isn't this a nice surprise." Sora or rather Balan appeared in the Enochian sigil, her attention wasn't focused on either one of the hunters but on Gabriel, "Gabriel, it's been awhile hasn't it?"

"Balan." was all the archangel said to the fallen and the one word response didn't bother Balan one bit.

The fallen looked past X and seen Wolf lying unconscious with Monarch at her side, just seeing Baliel's uninhabited vessel made her glare at X, "You've banished my sister."

X knew what Balan had said was more of a statement rather than a question which made the hunter smirk, "And you have mine held hostage, so why don't we make this easy on ourselves by you leaving."

Balan chuckled at the hunter and took one step forward until she was stopped by the sigil, she looked down and looked generally unamused. "Isn't this cute. Brother's taught you primitive insects a thing or two."

X smiled a fake smile and nodded, "Yeah, so what's it going to be? Are you going to leave Sora or am I going to have to remove you by force?"

Balan just half-smiled as she raised her hand and slowly clenched it into a fist, as her fist clenched the boards making up the ceiling began breaking apart and before they fell the pieces of wood stopped in mid-air. Taking action fast X lit her lighter and tossed it on the ring of holy oil to ignite it since it was clear the choice Balan was making. For some reason the fallen didn't look fazed at all by the holy fire, in fact she looked amused as she slowly waved her hand forward, sending the pieces of wood into the holy fire then hurled them towards not X or Monarch, but Gabriel. X was about to jump in the way of the balls of holy fire heading straight towards the archangel but he had already thought ahead and fled the room before they could even touch him.

_'I'll be in the next room if you need me, also if you need to use this spell; Pizin noco iad. It'll hurt Balan and leave her immobile for a bit which should give you enough time to banish her.'_ Gabriel's voice rang inside X's mind.

_'Thanks.'_ X glared at the fallen who just stood her ground looking smug. "Ol umb mir a lonsa propsol mad-"

Balan flinched at the beginning of the spell she knew well, her gaze went up to the boards above X and with the power of telekinesis began to make them break, "You're not banishing me from my vessel!"

The huntress looked up just in time for the large and small pieces of wood to come crashing down, she dove out of the way fast enough to avoid serious injury but managed to get hit by tiny splinters when the wood broke more on the ground, "Like you have a choice!" X dodged more projectile object and just before she could continue the spell Balan managed to catch her off guard with a question.

"Do you know why Sora said 'yes' to me?"

_'I was going to wait and have her tell me herself why she said yes to you.'_ X bitterly thought, keeping quiet assuming that Balan was going to tell her regardless if she asked or not.

"She said 'yes' to me because she was tired of all your precious little secrets." Balan looked disappointed when X didn't react to her reason, "Oh and she was tired of the lies." X made the mistake of reacting to the last part of what Balan had said.

"You're lying." She didn't want to believe that the fallen was telling the truth, that the fallen picked up a demon's instinct to lie if it hurts their intended target, "Sora wouldn't say yes over something like that."

Balan tilted her head to the side and smirked, pleased that the huntress was having doubts. "Why wouldn't she? She's been ever so loyal to you for three years, so loyal that it's practically a fault." She then started walking around the sigil since it stopped her from trying to leave it. "For those long three years Sora's trusted you, put her life on the line for you and you couldn't bear to let anyone know your past, your secrets. Stopping back to where she had been standing before, in the center of the circle she looked directly at X, "She was ever so patient with you, thinking that if she gave you time you'd come around to at least tell her a little scrap of something, but it never came. Even when she told you that she would not think any different of you."

X was trying to keep her cool, try not to show that what Balan was saying was affecting her, but it was hard not to. "But I've told Sora why-"

"Yes, you told her that the last person you trusted died," Balan removed the fake glasses she still had on from when she posed as a school faculty staff member and tucked them away in her jacket, "But she had told you that she never believed that you were a monster either, shouldn't that count for something, Miss X-Night?"

When Balan had mentioned the conversation X and Sora had at Deadwood, X started to become furious that the fallen was peeking into Sora's memories and using them against her. "Tliob ils zamran ds eol g yor a-"

"You sure you want to risk mispronouncing the spell?" The fallen asked, crossing her arms and looking confident that X would mess up even though she's panicking on the inside. "One slip," she made a pop sound to emphasize 'slip', "and the spell comes crashing down, do you want to continue?"

Grinning X didn't answer the fallen but continued the spell after glancing at the paper that she had in a dead man's grip, "daolim ixomaxip aspt zirenaiad."

Like the same as Baliel, Balan's eyes and mouth shone with a sullied light which warned Monarch and X to shield their eyes. To be sure that Wolf remained unharmed, Monarch slipped a sleeve of his leather jacket, that he substituted for a pillow, out and used it to cover Wolf's eyes just in case she accidentally opened her eyes while Balan was in her true form.

X kept her head low and using her arm as a shield she tried to see if Sora was moving at all or unconscious, just to be safe she called out to her, "Sora, don't look at Balan." She didn't know if vessels can be harmed by looking at the exposed grace of their respective fallen, but it was something she didn't want to risk.

Sora began to stir on the ground but she felt that her energy was sapped and the most she could do was slightly move her head. She didn't seem to hear what exactly X had yelled to her because she was still trying to regain consciousness but when her eyes finally focused the first thing that drew her attention was the figure engulfed in bright, but tainted light. _ 'So that's what you really look like Balan.'_ The eldest hunter turned away from the fallen and the phrase 'I'm sorry' kept repeating like a mantra because it was a phrase Sora was going to reacquaint herself with once everything was over.

"Time to go back home Balan." Even though X couldn't really see Balan she was going to be more than happy to get rid of the fallen, "Dooaip de enai ol adrpan vors sa zonrensg gi, Balan,"

_'Tell X-Night that I said 'thank you' _Sora heard Balan speak in her thoughts though as far as X and Monarch were able to hear all what the Fallen said sounded like a high pitched scream.

_'For what?' _Sora didn't like what the fallen was thanking X for and she didn't like it. She tried to fight off unconsciousness to hear what Balan was going to say next and hoped that it was the reason why she said 'thank you'.

"De ge Enay bagle balzizras."

_'For sending me back to Heaven. Upon my death shall break the seal on Lucifer's cage and that will only leave the last one to be broken.'_ Balan then screamed with her true voice, to make X think that she was trying to stop her, but it was to also prevent Sora from stopping her even though it was already too late.

"X stop!" Sora tried to scream but Balan's was louder. The screams gotten loud enough to where Sora had regained enough strength to cover her ears, but the moment she closed her eyes she felt her consciousness fading.

Only being able to hear the high-pitched ringing that was Balan's scream X spoke the final part, "Ioiad, idogio, Ol lava gi."

The screams finally quieted down and the light from Balan's true form faded from the room, X let out a relieved sigh that it was all over. Getting two more canteens of holy water out of the duffle that had been thrown around, thanks to the fallen and began dousing the flames. Wolf was starting to wake up which Monarch happily announced to X and was now tending to her to make sure that she didn't overexert herself after just waking up. Sora on the other hand was now unconscious which X had to try and pick the hunter up, Monarch noticed how X was struggling to get Sora out of the rings without dropping her so he helped Wolf to the mustang, putting her in the passenger seat he came back in and picked Sora up.

"Thank god this nightmare is finally over."

When Monarch said that something didn't feel right in the pit of X's stomach, it was as if she felt that something was wrong but couldn't place her finger on it, "Yeah. Now let's go home." Before X and Monarch carrying Sora walked out of the house X doubled back to try to find Gabriel and thank him, but the other rooms were empty. "Thanks Gabe." She spoke quietly after finding a little white card reading 'You owe me big time, Emmy' signed The Trickster. _'Sure 'Loki' just wait a bit before coming to collect.'_

Once X had retrieved the duffle bag that was almost about to get left behind, she quickly left the house just in time to see Monarch putting Sora in the back seat of the car. Just before he got in the driver's side X quickly told Monarch she'll ride with them and come back for Midnight Lily later. Monarch was shocked at what she was saying because X never wanted to go anywhere without her black and purple motorcycle unless she had a choice. Not denying X of her ride, he had Wolf lean forward a bit so he could push the seat up enough for X to slip through after she had hidden her bike from view. Once all the hunters were in the car Monarch started it up and were on their way home where everything was normal, well as normal as it could be for the four wayward hunters.

**~X~**

**Heaven. 5/XX/08.**

In what looked like an empty court room, Balan and Baliel were in the center of the room sitting on their knees. Neither of the two looked fearful but yet not emotionless either to the fact that they were fallen and they were now in Heaven. Appearing out of nowhere, a man in a black business suit, white collared shirt with a gray and white tie with diamond patters on it, he walked towards the center and stood in front of the two fallen.

Balan was the first to acknowledge the man and she smirked, "Hello Zachariah."

"I have to give you and Baliel credit, you two went outside the box when it came to seal breaking." The man or angel known as Zachariah praised the two fallen, "I didn't think that those black stains that Lucifer created would think to send a fallen up here, but you two." He gestured to them, "You two went all the way, you went the extra mile."

"We thank you for your praise but the seal is not yet broken." Balan stood up and held her arms out. "The death of a Fallen by the hand of Heaven's servant shall break one of the six hundred and sixty-six seals." She spoke; it was more like she was reciting the phrase that she heard many times over.

"I suppose you're right." Zachariah reached his hand into his jacket and pulled out a long silver dagger and looked at Balan. "What do you thing should be done about Baliel."

Baliel remained silent throughout the conversation and only looked at the two when she was mentioned, "You either let her go so she can inform Lilith and Ruby that it's time for the final seal to be broken or you kill her and you figure out a way to let those demons know what needs to be done." Balan spoke to the balding, hazel-eyed man without even looking at Baliel.

Zachariah pondered on the ultimatum for a couple of moments before reaching a verdict, "She can go," Baliel was about to get up to leave until he stopped her by adding, "But after she relays the message, she goes back down to Hell. Any questions or complaints." the Seraphim asked, expecting Baliel to argue but he received no word from her, she just leered at him.

"She'll go back," Balan answered for the fallen.

Without another word Baliel fled Heaven back down to Earth to go to Ilchester, Maryland where Lilith was to tell her that it's time. Meanwhile back upstairs Balan and Zachariah locked gazes for several moments before he walked up to her and jammed the blade into the Fallen's heart. Balan grabbed a hold of Zachariah's jacket for a moment only to speak with her last breath; 'It is done.' Letting go Balan fell to the ground and in a bright flash and short scream all that was left behind on the floor of the room were a pair of charred wings and a silhouette.

Zachariah retrieved his angel killing blade, slid it back into his jacket and went about his business like the whole event never happened.


	5. Vessels of Lucifer's Fallen Alt Scene

The Vessels of Lucifer's Fallen pt.2 Alternate scene

(After the banishment of Baliel.)

Luckily for X and Monarch, expelling Baliel from Wolf wasn't too difficult. Though it didn't help that, even with the Enochian sigil Gabriel had instructed them to draw, the fallen was still able to fight within the circle. The most Baliel did was hurl furniture that hadn't been nailed down towards the two hunters along with attempt to break both the holy fire circle and the angel trapping sigil.

Hoping that the fallen was sent back down to Hell X wanted to hurry and summon the fallen in possession of Sora as quick as possible, but doing so would leave them one hunter short since Monarch was tending to the unconscious Wolf. Getting the summoning ritual prepared once more the sound of flapping wings resounded in the air and right beside X was the very archangel that had been helping them out.

"You might want to slow down there, Emmy."

"No can do Gabe, we don't know how quickly Baliel can climb out of Hell, so the sooner I can summon the other fallen here the better." X shown no signs of stopping, all the while what Baliel had said kept ringing in her head;_ 'How could you? After all he's done for you, how could you go and serve these humans!?'_

The phrase kept repeating like an mantra up until X had finished the summoning ritual and had redone the circle of holy oil. Banishing the thought from her mind X-Night looked towards Monarch to see that he was still tending to Wolf making sure she was far from the room as possible but still in the house, Gabriel on the other hand stayed near X. Going over everything once more X got out the cooled down lighter and gripped it tight in her hand and took a deep breath.

"Ol yolcam a telocvovim merifri, Balan, noco de Lucifer zamran pambt aspt oi comselh!" The hunter's gaze was focused on the empty circles after X had dropped the match into the bowl of ingredients used for the ritual. She had hoped that Wolf had heard the fallen's name right before falling into unconsciousness or else they'd have another mess of problems.

Seconds seemed like minutes to the hunter waiting, Gabriel stood his ground and Monarch kept his eyes on the circle waiting for the fallen to show up. "Well, isn't this a surprise." Sora's voice rang out in the house and right where X had summoned her Balan appeared inside the circle. Balan threw a glare in X's direction but her features softened when her gaze turned towards Gabriel, "Hello Gabriel, it's been awhile hasn't it?"

"Balan."

Not taking in her surroundings Balan tried to take a step forward but was stopped before she could walk even an inch and merely looked down to see the sigil that kept her trapped, "Now this is just cute, but fixable."

The two hunters and archangel wondered what the fallen was up to but it was soon answered when Balan raised her hand clenched it into a fist and the wooden planks right above her started to crack. When a good sized plank started to fall X had seen that it was directly above Balan and not over the necessary place to break the Enochian sigil. Thinking that the fallen was just going to kill Sora and leave the vessel X rushed towards her in hopes of saving Sora.

"X, don't!" Gabriel narrowly missed trying to grab her before she entered the circle, but it was too late, she was already inside and had knocked away the falling plank.

Balan smirked as she wrapped her arm around the huntress and held X close to her after she quickly ignited the holy oil, "Hun, you just made a very bad mistake."

X had no idea what Balan was getting at but after she managed to pry her arm off she tried to get out of the rings but an unseen force stopped her. "What the…?"

"Baliel must've relayed the message before you banished her from her vessel, didn't she tell you?" Balan asked and before she'd given the hunter enough time to respond the fallen grabbed a hold of X's wrist, twisted it and forced her on her knee.

"Well... We didn't give her much of a change to talk before we forced her out of Wolf." X tried to break Balan's grip on her wrist but it proved to be useless. "So enlighten me on what this message was supposed to be."

Balan chuckled at how X asked for the message, but rather than indulge her captive in the full message she decided to give her a little scrap, "If you and all the other hunters stand down, perhaps you can talk to Lucifer and maybe he'll give you answers..." The fallen's face then turned dark as her grip tightened, "That if he doesn't kill you first!"

At the same moment Balan said that she broke X's wrist and even though she'd lived through Alastair's torture the pain she felt now was enough to make her cry out. Monarch had left Wolf's side, grabbed several canteens of holy water with the intention of putting out part of the ring of holy fire and was about to intervene the fallen beating X to hell and back until Gabriel stopped him.

"What are you doing?! We've got to stop Balan before she kills X!"

"Think about what you're doing!" Gabriel yelled back, he knew perfectly well that Monarch could safely get passed the holy fire but it was a risk if he broke both circles to just get X out. "You break both of those circles Balan can run and Dad knows that she won't fall for the same trick twice."

Balan stopped mid-strike as she looked towards the two arguing and smiled, "Don't you worry about her boys; Nephilims heal, they always do."

"What?" Monarch was thrown through a loop while Gabriel looked as if a hidden suspicion he had was just confirmed.

"Oh, you didn't know did you?" Balan smirked, holding X up as if she was something to display, "Your little friend here is one of the very rare breed of beings that are part angel and human. It's the reason why she's known as 'The Girl Who Can See'."

"B-but how is-"

Using Sora's playful act that she uses on rare occasions Balan, still holding X up with one arm, gripped X's jaw and made her look at the Monarch and Gabriel, "How you ask, well she wasn't always like this; She had been born seemingly human... that is until her little fall into damnation and her being raised awakened her angelic half, but only to the extent of seeing the true visage of the supernatural." The fallen harshly let go of X's jaw but kept up her act, "Had Lucifer known that this little nephilim had fallen into Hell, he would've ordered us to bring her back up topside rather than allow one of Heaven's soldiers raise her up."

While Balan had her attention on Monarch and Gabriel who couldn't do anything without compromising Balan's entrapment, X gathered her strength and grabbed the fallen by her jacket lapel with her good hand. Feeling the huntress grab onto her like that had made the fallen look at her but she chuckled at the sad attempt X was making.

"You know why your friend said 'yes' to me?"

_'I would've rather waited and ask Sora that after I send you back to Hell.'_ X bitterly thought, but kept her mouth shut as she continued to pull herself up to where she was eye to eye with Balan.

Balan smirked as she let go of X's broken wrist, "She was tired of all the secrets and the lies, oh especially the lies."

Hearing the so called reason why Sora had given consent to Balan nearly put X in shock, she tried to keep a straight face but she couldn't help but show slight disbelief, "But I told Sora why-"

"She's been so loyal to you, practically loyal to a fault." Balan threw a punch that connected with X's jaw, "For three years she's been ever so patient with you, hoping that one day you'd finally open up to her or at least trust her enough to know just a scrap of your past but no it never came."

After Balan landed another punch X managed to grab a hold of Balan's wrist with her good hand so she could stop the punches, "Sora, I know you're in there. Please, you gotta fight this thing!"

Balan laughed at what route X was taking as she jerked her hand free, "Sora's asleep at the moment," the fallen back-handed the hunter and continued, "I guess she had to draw the line at murder." She leaned in close acting as if what she had done was a secret, "After I compelled a teacher to massacre his students that's when she started to act up, but it was nothing I couldn't take care of. For someone who has a strong dislike for children she sure acted like she cared for them when they started screaming for help, begging for their lives."

"Stop it." X spoke low, her anger slowly rising at how this fallen was making it seem like Sora was the one at fault. The hunter had been holding back not because her adversary was a fallen angel but because she didn't want to hurt Sora, she wanted to get both her comrades back unharmed.

"It's not like you can stop me, nephilim." Balan clenched her fist and she pulled back.

"Sora stop, don't let Balan continue to use you!" Monarch called out to the possessed hunter, hoping that Sora could somehow regain control.

Just as Balan was about to hit X again, her face contorted to convey as if something she didn't expect had happened and her punch stopped an inch in front of X's face and shook with restraint. "You... are not... hurting X anymore!"

Right as Sora made her declaration at Balan she collapsed on the ground, but instead of writhing in pain due to holding the fallen back, Sora began rubbing her palm on the sigil to smudge the line and breaking the circle. X was in such a state of stupor that she didn't notice that Monarch grabbed a rotting couch cushion and placed it over the holy fire so X could get out once the sigil was broken.

"X, I can't hold Balan back much longer, you've got to get out of this circle now!" Sora fully collapsed on the ground once the Enochian sigil had been broken.

"Emmy, come on!" Gabriel shouted, only getting some of her attention before Monarch grabbed the hunter and dragged her out, but not before he fixed the broken part of the sigil.

Once X was out of the circle Sora slowly started to get up on her feet, though her movements were marionette-like. "Damn that woman, who would've thought that she had that much fight in her." The fallen then began to grin, "But at this point it doesn't matter, only two more seals need to be broken and Lucifer is free to walk the Earth and claim his predestined vessel; The Boy-King, Sam Winchester!"

As if all sanity had finally faded Balan began laughing and continued to do so until her amusement died down. Balan and X locked gazes, locked in a battle of wills to see who will falter first, Balan slowly began composing herself while X was slowly recuperating from the beating just minutes before. Monarch was tired of seeing the fallen continue using his friend as a puppet, since he was the only one who could safely cross in and out of the circles he could banish Balan from Sora but right as he was about to walk passed X she held out her arm in front of him.

"I'm taking this Fallen out." X growled, showing that she had the full intention of ridding Sora of the fallen she turned her eyes towards Gabriel's direction, "Gabe, will the spell affect you too?"

"If you're not in contact with Balan then yes it will." the archangel answered, already thinking ahead knowing what exactly X was planning on doing.

"Then get out of here and don't come back till I call." The only response X had gotten from Gabriel was the sound of wings flapping in the air, signifying that the angel had left the house to avoid banishment from his vessel.

Balan crossed her arms over her chest, looking confident as she's ever been before. "You sure you want to take the risk? A spell can go oh so wrong with the slightest mispronunciation. One wrong slip of the tongue and everything will tumble down."

X took a deep breath, _'I hope I get this right.'_ The huntress was inwardly worrying that she would mess up the spell since Enochian was nothing like Latin and even with a written version some of the letters didn't have the same sounds as they would in English. "Ol umb mir a lonsa propsol mad, tliob ils zamran ds eol g-"

"Damn you Gabriel!" Balan screeched in anger, covering her ears trying to block out the Enochian spell X was reciting.

"yor a daolim ixomaxip aspt zirenaiad." X and Monarch quickly covered their ears when Balan let out an ear-piercing scream and had to close their eyes due to Balan true form being exposed. "Sora, don't look at Balan!" She hoped that Sora had heard her or was rendered unconscious like Wolf had been when Baliel was separated from her.

Sora awoken by the fallen's high-pitched shriek, her vision was blurred and slowly clearing. Due to Balan's scream the hunter couldn't make out what X had said and from what she saw when she took control back from Balan for a moment the room had been dark, but now the room was lit. Feeling drained of energy the most Sora could do was turn her head towards the source of light and as Sora got a good look at the source she could tell that the light had a dull shine while it also had a blacked sheen to it. While the light source that turned out to be Balan in his/her true form, Sora could easily look at Balan while X and Monarch couldn't but she turned away and tried to cover her ears to block out the scream.

"Dooaip de enai ol adrpan vors sa zonrensg gi," X continued the spell despite the fallen shrieking in attempt to hinder the hunter but she wouldn't back down.

_'Stop her! Don't let the nephilim continue!'_ What sounded like high-pitched whines to Monarch and X-Night, it came out in English to Sora but the plea or rather the demand fell on deaf ears.

X had a feeling that from the fallen's scream getting progressively louder was that the spell was working like it did during Baliel's banishment performed by Monarch, "Balan, de ge Enay bagle balzizras."

_'Sora, stop her! If you don't you'll condemn me to something worse than death, you'll be condemning me to eternal suffering!'_

_'Good, then all those children you made that teacher slaughter will have their vengeance.'_ Sora bitterly thought as she felt the rest of her energy drain from her body and slowly started slipping into unconsciousness.

"Ioiad, idogio, Ol lava gi."

With the final part of the spell Balan let out one final scream as she disappeared from the house, without skipping a beat Monarch uncapped the canteens of holy water he had and doused the flames. Thanks to the water the part of the sigil that had been newly repaired had now been smeared again thus negating it's angel trapping purpose.

The first thing X had done was rush over to Sora, who was now unconscious, and embraced her all the while ignoring the pain she was in. Hearing the sounds of groaning from in the room Monarch turned to find that Wolf was slowly waking up and he went to go check on her and see how she was doing. Even though it seemed like the moment couldn't be ruined by anything the famliar sound of Pat Benatar's 'Hell is for Children' resounded in the room. In a fit of fury X snatched her phone out of her jacket pocket and threw it aside, not realizing that it had slid over to Monarch instead of breaking on the floor.

Monarch picked up the ringing phone and answered it but kept quiet as the person on the other end immediately started speaking. "Well congratulations X, 'cause whatever you did it caused the bloody apocalypse! My connections are telling me that Lucifer, the bloody king of Hell, is now roaming free!"

"I'm sorry...but X isn't able to talk right now." Monarch tried to talk without conveying his confusion and irritation towards the caller, he and X had just gotten their friends back and suddenly some guy on X's mysterious commission ringer calls and is demanding what she did to bring about 'the apocalypse'. "I can take a message and relay it to her when she's available."

There was a short silence until a chuckle broke it, "Tell X that Crowley needs to see her as soon as possible and not waste a single second. Be a dear and make sure she gets that message."

Without responding Monarch hung up on Crowley and looked at X for a moment, wondering what her relationship to this Crowley is. Though that moment was also short lived when Wolf started to struggle as she was getting up which quickly got Monarch's attention and helped her up and after he gotten her steady he helped the young hunter to the mustang. He went back inside the house to find X setting her broken wrist after she had laid Sora back down on the floor.

Monarch made his way over to the girls and with ease he picked Sora up, "Let's go home X." He walked towards the door but stopped and asked, "Can you ride your bike with your wrist like that?"

As much as X would rather not leave Midnight Sky, she shook her head and got up, "Can't do much riding with my wrist all jacked up." X answered then added, "I'll come back for my bike later when everything's all settled down."

Once Monarch got Sora in the car Wolf moved up to the passenger side seat while X took the back after she had hid her bike from view. The only able bodied hunter still standing had gotten in the car, started it up and began making their way back to their home where they can get some well-deserved rest and let the questions wait.


	6. The Grimm Tales Trickster pt1

The Grimm Tales Trickster pt.1

**Somewhere in Southern Quebec, 2006**

It was hunting season for raccoon in the Canadian country, coon hunters from all over were traveling through the woods with their dogs and guns in search of raccoons. Since it was night the hunters had to use flashlights to navigate throughout the woods and keep an eye out for their hounds.

In the midst of coons coming out of their homes in search for food, a raccoon on the ground ran as fast as his four legs could carry him. Stopping every few minutes to look back to see if any hounds caught his scent or if any humans were following him, seeing none the raccoon stopped to rest for a moment only to find another of its kind run up to him.

"What are you doing?! Run, they're coming!" was all the frantic raccoon said before running away.

Shaking its head the raccoon began running again but this time he came across the sign that had the words, 'You are now leaving Canada'. Thinking he would be safe the coon continued running before stopping in a town that was long asleep.

"How did this come to pass? Me, Azeban the raccoon trickster running for my life. Back in the day I was feared for my antics which had people wary." The raccoon known as Azeban spoke to himself in his thoughts as he began going through the town whose name he did not know. "I wonder what I can do for fun around here."

With boredom being his guide, Azeban wandered the town to find a two-story home with a bedroom light on. Curiosities taking hold the trickster climbed the tree closest to the window and found a boy no older than twelve reading out of a black book with gold letters 'The Brothers Grimm Complete Fairy Tales'. Coming to realize that his creativity for his antics was wearing thin, Azeban hopped onto the window sill in hopes of being able to read out of the book. The window to the boy's room was open enough for him to climb in, he looked to see if the boy had stirred from his place on his bed, which he had not, and took at as an opportunity to sneak in and read over the boy's shoulder.

Making sure not to make a sound Azeban crawled to the boy's right side, carefully climbed onto the bed and perched himself on the head rest and began reading only to see that he was reading 'The Young Giant' not realizing that he unknowing created a shadow on the book. The boy turned his head over his shoulder to see the raccoon behind him which sent him running off the bed and in his panic he dropped his book.

"Dad! There's a raccoon in my room!" The boy shouted for his father and while he was doing so, Azeban leaped to the floor, carefully opened the book back to the boy's stop and continued reading. "Huh?" He got closer to see that the raccoon was really reading and not tearing out the pages like a wild animal would do, "You can read?"

"I can talk too, only through thought though." Azeban replied taking notice that the boy jumped in surprise that he heard a voice in his head. With his acute senses the trickster picked up the sound of rushing footsteps so as quick as he could Azeban crawled under the boy's bed with the book.

The father stormed into the room with a broom in hand and looked around for the creature, "You okay Brian? Where'd it go?"

Still slightly shaken up Brian looked at his father and answered, "It ran back out the window when I was yelling for you."

Brian's father let out a relieved sigh that his son wasn't hurt then went over to the window to shut it and lock it, "Let's just keep this window shut at night from now on, alright?"

"Okay. Sorry for waking you up dad." Brian apologized as his father went to leave the room.

Once the door was closed behind him, Brian got down on his hands and knees to look under the bed and found the raccoon still reading, "You can come out now."

Leaving the bed with the book in paws, Azeban put the book on the bed and hopped onto it, "I'm surprised you didn't tell your father where I was. Normally one would jump at the chance to rid a raccoon from their room."

"Well you can talk and read. Not most raccoon can do that." Brian sat on the bed next to the raccoon trickster and seen that he'd read ahead to 'Sweet Porridge'. "Hey, I wasn't finished with 'The Young Giant'!"

Azeban then handed the book over the Brian with his page marked on where he left off, "Go ahead and read, I got a lot of work to do for tomorrow."

Brian didn't ask what the raccoon meant by what he said because he immersed himself in his book, while Azeban made himself at home in the boy's closet on a pile of unused blankets. Just before Azeban had gone to sleep, he heard Brian laughing and poked his head out to see what was going on.

"You read 'Sweet Porridge'?"

Managing to stop laughing Brian nodded his head, "The whole town got flooded with porridge because the mother couldn't remember the phrase to stop the pot."

Leaving the conversation at that the trickster fell asleep on the blanket curled in a ball, Brian fell asleep soon after.

~Several days later~

**No Where, Texas. Hunter Manor**

I woke up drenched in a cold sweat once again, another night with the same nightmare that's been haunting me, it truly bothered me not knowing what saved me and what caused that much destruction, but that was a case for another day. Getting up and going about my morning routine of getting dressed, taking care of my hygiene business and all that jazz, I went downstairs to find both Monarch and Sora making breakfast... That only happens once in a blue moon.

"Sora, I'm making omelets." Monarch told the oldest hunter as she reached for a bottle of vanilla extract and put a little bit in her bowl of beaten eggs.

"But I'm in the mood for something sweet and I haven't had French toast in forever and a day." Sora argued back as she then put sugar in the mixture, mixed it once more and began soaking a piece of bread in it, "If anyone else wants French toast you better speak up."

Wolf sighed as she propped her elbows on the table and held her head up with her hands, "What I wouldn't give for an English breakfast."

"If you want one then you can tell me how to make it." Monarch told Wolf as he finished a third cheese and bacon bits omelet.

"No thanks, you've already made the omelets so I won't trouble you with the English breakfast." Wolf turned to see me coming to the island in the middle of the kitchen, "Hey X, you're just in time for breakfast."

I saw Sora place two pieces of French toast on her plate before turning to me, "You want some French toast to go with your omelet X?"

"Maybe some other time," I replied to Sora which then she rinsed out the bowl she was using for her French toast mixture and placed it in the sink along with her skillet. Once she was done she sat down on the stool poured some syrup and began eating.

Mornings like this were peaceful and I liked it that way, despite what we all do for a living we always manage to find a way to have these happy moments...Just before it gets ruined by business.

Nonetheless while we were all eating, Monarch was looking through the paper to see if there were any cases that were up our alley but seeing that he didn't mark any of them meant that there was nothing near home. I had a feeling that Crowley was going to call anytime now because nowadays he's made a habit of requesting my services during breakfast but no call came. Instead the house phone rang when we were all finished eating, Wolf was closest to the phone which allowed her to answer it.

"Hunter Manor." Wolf greeted, pausing as the person on the other end of the phone began talking, "Huh? That definitely sounds like our kind of job."

"What's the job Wolf?" I asked wanting to know who was contracting us but all I got was the 'wait a sec' sign by Wolf as she started writing down some information.

"I believe we'll be very interested in the job, it may take us a few days to get there but we'll take the commission. Goodbye." Wolf hung up the phone looking very interested and confused at the same time.

"So... You wanna tell us what the case is?" Sora asked, getting ready to get up and collect some essential supplies.

Wolf put the notepad on the table which had the words 'Nicolas Grayson', 'Moose River, Maine' 'People suddenly not acting like themselves then have no memory of what they did' and 'Reenacting a play?'. "The details are hard to describe but this is our kind of thing."

While we were all preparing to leave the manor for Maine, Wolf began filling Monarch, Sora and I in on what the person on the phone said about the case and we'll be debriefed more when we get there. So after making the necessary arrangements to make sure that any calls for possible commissions would need to be forwarded to the Harvelle Roadhouse until we were finished and packing guns, knives, holy water and at least three days' worth of clothes. I would've just gone with one set of clothes thinking that it was going to be a quick job, but something about it didn't seem right.

_'What kind of creature can manipulate people to acting like someone completely different and leave them with no memory?'_ It was something that puzzled me but we would be getting more information once we arrive in Maine... This is going to be a long trip.

"Alright, we're all packed and ready to go." Monarch called out as he just finished loading the trunk with weapons and clothes while Sora and Wolf double checked that the manor was locked and secured.

I finished packing my bag, strapped it down to Midnight Sky and waited for the others to get moving since they have a map.

Revving up Midnight Sky, Monarch got behind the wheel of the mustang with Sora in the passenger seat and Wolf in the back we got on the road.

**~X~**

**Moose River, Maine**

Making a couple of stops for gas refills, dinner break and a short stay at a motel, we finally made it to Moose River. There were people walking down the sidewalks, kids riding their bikes, all signs of a normal town unaffected by anything supernatural... That's usually where it happens half the time.

Parking next to a little coffee shop, it was there where we were supposed to meet the person who commissioned us to get to the bottom of what was going on in this town. From what Wolf was told, the signs pointed to a trickster but there were no deaths to the high and mighty. Taking the lead the four of us entered the shop only to be greeted by a man looking worse for wear and sleep deprived, he lead us to his table and we all sat down.

"You don't know how relieved I am that you all decided to take this case." The man started as he began pulling out detailed self-made files. "Everything you need to know is in these files and the strange occurrences have all been documented."

Sora and Monarch took the files and began reading them, "When did all this start happening?" I asked, needing to know if the creature's appearance was known or if it snuck in without any notice.

"It started happening about a week ago just out of the blue." Nicolas answered my question which led me to believe that whatever was pulling the strings slipped in unnoticed. "Another strange thing is that these things happen at random and it happens to random people and families. We can thank God that there haven't been any deaths but I'd rather this thing be stopped before that happens."

I leaned back in my seat thinking of where we could start but since no one has any memories of what happened it would prove to be a little difficult. "Well until we know what we're up against, there's not much we can do but to wait till it shows itself."

Nicolas let out a sigh and ran his hands through his hair, "I had a feeling that was going to happen but until it comes out you can make yourself at home in my cabin."

Agree to set up base at his cabin I told Sora, Monarch and Wolf that I was going to scout out the area to see if I could find anything out of the ordinary. Leaving the shop I didn't expect Wolf to come out soon after saying that she would also go investigate another part of the town to cover more ground while Sora and Monarch try to speculate what we were up against.

Parting ways I got on my bike and headed to the center of the town where there would be a lot more people. Though getting there proved to be of no use because no matter where I looked with my ability I couldn't find any trace of anything supernatural.

"Cook, little pot, cook." a child's voice rang which caught my attention and before my eyes the pot began making what looked like oatmeal.

"Could it be a cursed object?" I muttered to myself as I parked Midnight Sky and walked closer to the little girl with the oatmeal making pot. "What'cha got there?" I asked, trying to make a subtle approach to get a closer look at the pot.

The little girl looked at me and smiled, "An old woman in the woods gave me this pot, my mother and I are poor and can't afford a lot to eat so all I have to say to this pot is 'Cook, little pot, cook' and it would make as much sweet porridge as we want and when I want it to stop I have to say, 'Stop little pot'." The girl explained to me then looked back to her pot, "Stop little pot."

Once those words were said the pot stopped making porridge and the girl started eating it happily, I ran back to my bike, got out my cell and dialed Wolf, "Wolf, I think this may be a cursed object we're dealing with, but just in case meet back up with Sora and Monarch to see what they gathered from those files."

"Will do, be careful X." Wolf answered then hung up as I did the same and sped off on my bike to the woods.

**~X~**

Sora leaned back in her seat in the cafe with a cup of water in one hand and a document in the other. Monarch sat across from her looking at another file while typing in all he can in to the laptop to pull up anything useful. But what the two hunters already figured out was that this wasn't like anything they've seen before.

"Got anything?" Sora asked after taking a sip of water and putting down her file.

"Nothing but fairy tales, it doesn't make any sense." Monarch gripped his hair with both his hands, "In one case a family's kid got shrunk to the size of a thumb and in another the entire town freaked out over a horned owl calling it a monster."

"In the file I read, a woman's husband got kidnapped by a 'nixie' and practically went through hell just to get him back and be rid of it." Sora set down her water and just stared at the files sprawled out on the table, "None of these people are related, no connection whatsoever, so what the hell?"

While Monarch and Sora were trying to come up with possible theories as to what they were up against, Wolf rushed into the cafe and just barely stopped at her comrades table.

"X may've found out what we're dealing with." Wolf managed to say as she tried catching her breath, "She thinks it's a cursed object, but just to be sure, did you guys find anything?"

Both Sora and Monarch shook their heads from side to side, "Sorry, but none of this makes any..." Sora paused as she looked out the window to see a wave of oatmeal covering the street, "What the?"

"Is that... oatmeal?" Monarch raised his brow at what he saw in covering the streets and continued to start flooding the streets.

**~X~**

This was starting to feel like a wild goose chase, the little girl had said that an old woman gave her the pot in the woods but the problem was that I had searched up and down these woods. The only thing I actually found there was the commissioner's cabin that he said he'd let us use but no other place that looked remotely inhabited.

Just as I exited the woods and began driving back into town I was forced to a stop because of a tan mush mound covering both the streets and sidewalks and almost engulfed half the houses and shops.

Rapidly getting my phone out I dialed the first number which happened to be Monarch's and waited for him to pick up, "X, we were just about to call you until we notice that there's oatmeal flooding the town. Did you find the cursed object?"

"Monarch, I'm not even sure if it really is a cursed object. This is nothing like I've ever seen before, I thought it was a cursed object because a little girl had a pot that she got from an old woman in the woods that makes oatmeal, or porridge, or whatever on command." I honestly had no idea how to take all of this, nothing bad was happening, no deaths.

I heard shifting in the background and the next thing I knew, I heard Wolf's voice over the phone, "If it's not a cursed object or a witch then it has to be something else which means that we're going to have to wait and do recon to at least get a peek at this thing."

Agreeing to do some recon we hung up and I started driving around to see if I could get back into the town without having to dig my way through. Just as I was about to continue driving around the town I happened to see just in time that all the porridge had vanished in a blue shimmer. There was not a trace of the breakfast dish anywhere! It's as if someone erased... now what supernatural being do I know that can zap anything in and out of existence.

'No, don't go assuming just yet. It could be anything with reality manipulating powers... Who am I kidding this could be the work of a trickster.' I thought but pushed my assumption to the back of my mind for the time being.

**~X~**

Near the entrance to the town in front of Brian's home, the boy was in the front yard under a tree rolling around with laughter while the raccoon Azeban was sitting on a branch.

"So, how was that for today's entertainment?" Azeban asked Brian after climbing down the tree and waited for Brian to stop laughing long enough to get his answer.

"That- hahaha -was awesome!" Brian sat up, wiping tears from his eyes while occasionally letting out some chuckles before gaining control over himself. "You," he pointed to the raccoon trickster, "are the coolest raccoon ever Aze..."

The raccoon quickly ran to the boy and covered his mouth while shaking his head from side to side, "Remember what we agreed on?"

Azeban removed his hands from Brian's mouth allowing the boy to speak, "Sorry Bandit. But why can't I call you by your real name?"

Opening the Grimm Fairy Tales book to the next story Azeban plainly replied, "Can't risk Hunters knowing who I am, let's just leave it at that."

When Azeban said that, Brian thought that by 'Hunters' the raccoon was talking about the ones that hunt deer, geese and raccoon, but the trickster really meant was those who hunt the supernatural. Hearing faint yelling from inside his house the boy knew that his parents were fighting... Again and when that happens he usually stays outside until it ends. Azeban told Brian that he had something to go somewhere to get his favorite berries to snack on, so before Brian could say anything the raccoon handed him his book and ran off.

The trickster knew something wasn't right in the town he decided to use as his little playground so he had to go and investigate. Making sure to stick to the alleyways the raccoon managed to cut through the small town in no time and by the time he stopped to look around. He found himself at a house where he had used his power to make the family of two act out 'The Frog Prince' and saw two people, a young girl with shoulder length brown hair with an older black haired man dressed in suits, talking to both the parents and children. Looking across the street Azeban noticed two women leaving a house which he recalled them performing 'The Cat and Mouse in Partnership' and thought that the four he spotted looked awfully suspicious.

Using the trees in the area as a cover, Azeban climbed up the one over what he assumed to be their car after the four congregated to it.

"Any luck?" X asked as she put her hands in her suit pocket, hoping that Wolf and Monarch had something.

Wolf shook her head from side to side while Monarch answered, "Nothing, all the family remembers is that one second they were having a picnic lunch outside then the next minute they had no idea what they were doing. But they were told by spectators that their son was imitating a frog and the daughter a princess playing with a ball." Wolf then asked, "What about you guys?"

Sora handed Wolf a blank pad, "Nothin', any suggestions?"

"Witch, trickster, god or demi-god, take your pick." X looked around getting a feeling that they were being watched which they were.

The trickster hiding in the tree inwardly grinned that the hunters were at a loss as to what he was but he knew that he had to be on his toes. But that didn't mean he couldn't mess with them.

"We should be getting to the cabin soon; I doubt we'll find anything once night rolls around." Monarch suggested as the sun was starting to set and the street lamps were starting to light up.

Azeban watched as Monarch, Sora and Wolf get in the red mustang and X mount her motorcycle and start it up. Before the car left the raccoon concentrated on Wolf and Monarch and without their notice gold rings appeared on their ring fingers. The trickster snickered at his little plan to upset the hunter team and then proceeded to head back to Brian so he can have a share of his dinner.

**~X~**

It was only for a moment, I felt something not right. I momentarily stopped my bike and looked around the area with my power activated only to find nothing. Normally, my senses are on mark but maybe it was nearby but left, whatever this thing is it's sneaky.

It didn't take too long for me to catch up to Sora and the others and in no time we arrived at the cabin. An actual dinner would be fantastic rather than the usual fast food. While I was unstrapping my bag from my bike, I looked to the side to find Wolf carrying both hers and Monarch's bag while he went straight on inside the cabin. Things really started to look out of place when I got inside and seen Monarch sitting at the table in the kitchen and Wolf cooking dinner and Sora motioned to me with a 'What the hell?' look while gesturing to the two.

I motioned for Sora to come to me for a moment and she came over, I looked behind her to see if Monarch or Wolf was listening and whispered to her, "Were they like this before we got here?"

"No, I swear, they were themselves... But," Sora paused, thinking back to see if she did miss something about our comrades, "they were awfully quiet and Monarch didn't discuss anything on the drive here."

I looked back over to Monarch and Wolf who set several plates of food on the table and when Monarch took a bite of whatever Wolf cooked, he spat it out, picked up his plate and dropped it on the floor. "You call this food? This tastes like garbage!" He then got up, went over to Wolf and grabbed a fistful of her hair and shoved her to the wall.

"That did not just happen!" I tackled Monarch and gave him a good punch to the jaw, "Sora, check on Wolf."

"Already ahead of you," Sora ran over to Wolf to see if Monarch did any sort of damage to her, but my focus was on the dark haired man who was feigning guilt.

"Constable, you must that I had done no wrong to my wife." Monarch stated but when he said 'Wife' and 'Constable' it was all it took for me to see that my two comrades were bewitched or possessed. "I was merely helping my dearest and she slipped."

"Monarch, snap out of it!" Sora yelled at him after helping Wolf on the couch, "Wolf is not your wife, you're not her husband, and you're not married!"

I got off Monarch and as he got up he acted nonchalant, "I stand by my word, and I had done no harm to my wife."

Sora and I looked at each other then back to our affected teammates and back to each other. Without saying a word, we agreed to watch over the two until this wears off and from what we had gathered earlier this doesn't last any more than an hour or two. After our agreement, we made Monarch clean up his mess though it was quite difficult because he kept arguing that cleaning was the wife's job while Sora had to stop Wolf from doing her 'marital' duties. Once the kitchen was cleaned up Sora, Wolf, under slight protest, and I finally got some food in our guts which the food Wolf cooked wasn't half bad with what all was in the cabin.

I checked the moose antler wall clock to see that it was hitting ten at night and Monarch and Wolf were still not like themselves and the worse thing is that Monarch is being sneaky in hurting Wolf. Somehow when Sora and I were exchanging shifts, Monarch went to get a yard-stick and a pair of scissors after he had yanked a good handful of hair out of her head which in a panic she fled the cabin with Monarch chasing her.

"How much longer is this chaos going to last?!" I couldn't blame Sora for being irritated that neither one of us could snap them out of their trance.

I couldn't give Sora an answer but that didn't mean that we should sit and twiddle our thumbs, so we went to our consecutive vehicles and the two of us went in two directions; Sora decided to drive down the main road to town to see if that was where they could be headed while I made chase after them in the woods on my bike. I concentrated on my ability for a moment and when I opened my eyes my night vision was working and I managed to catch an outline of Monarch empty-handed. I almost, almost being the key word, thought the worst until I heard Wolf crying for help, revving Midnight Sky I sped after the two while avoiding uprooted tree roots and logs.

By the time I caught up to the two, Monarch was being arrested by the cops, Wolf was crying to the cops about how he was beating her again and Sora trying to explain to the cops that he wasn't himself and it was another mysterious case. Though, it didn't seem to help because the ones arresting him had placed him in the back of a police car and told us that they were going to hold him overnight.

"I-I don't know what I did wrong, I've only been good and industrious to him and my husband repays me with violence." Wolf weakly cried after the cops left, brushing her hair out with her hand and there I noticed a ring on her finger that was never there before.

I went over to her, "Wolf, you and Monarch are not married, and you've been affected by whatever is plaguing this town." I went for her left hand to pull the ring off to see if it'll undo the control but the moment I touched it, it disappeared in a blue shimmer.

When the ring disappeared Wolf looked dazed for a bit then started looking around all confused, "I thought we were going back to the cabin? Did we change plans and patrol the town and why the heck does my head hurt?" The youngest hunter began questioning while holding her head which may've hurt from when Monarch pulled at her hair.

"Wolf, what all do you remember?" Sora asked inspecting Wolf who looked back to her normal self.

WolfAngel gave Sora and I a confused look as if Sora asked a trick question, "I remember that we got nothing from the two families and decided to head back to the cabin. Did something happen?"

"Yeah, you and Monarch were influenced by the creature here and now Monarch is in jail for the night."

The youngest hunter fell into a shocked state, no doubt worrying about what she had done. Sora and I agreed to pick up Monarch first thing in the morning and the three of us headed back to the cabin. Once back we began explaining to Wolf that under the creature's control the two of them were like the frail wife and abusive husband which didn't seem to make things any easier.

Midnight almost arriving it was time to get some rest... Even though my nightmares will plague me once more, but I try to anyway. _'I'm gonna call him up to see if he's behind this.'_ Making that mental note I fell asleep to the sounds of the woods.

**~X~**

The morning sun rose in Moose River and its people had started getting up and about for either work, school or their morning routine. Brian woke up to his alarm clock and found Azeban sleeping in an odd position, usually he'd be curled up in a ball but last night he'd came in late claiming to had a fight with a stray dog and got away unharmed. This had been a first the boy had seen of his raccoon friend and wondered if he really did get in a fight, though he had no reason to doubt, Azeban had done no wrong. Getting up out of bed in his blue flannel pajamas, he walked over to the closet where the raccoon made his home and had pet him.

"Morning Azeban." he greeted cheerfully then started getting dressed for school.

The raccoon grumbled before rolling onto the wood floor on his back, "I've told you to call me 'Bandit'."

"But we're in my house, you said not to call you by your real name in public." Brian backed his reason for calling the raccoon by his true name, "You never said anything about calling you by your alias in my house." The boy finished getting dressed in regular clothes and watched as the trickster got on his feet and go back to his bed in the closet. "That must've been some fight."

"Like you wouldn't believe,"

Saying nothing else to Azeban, Brian went downstairs to have breakfast only to find his father making pancakes and his mother passed out on the couch. He knew that there had been another fight because if there hadn't his mother wouldn't be on the couch and just with her being in the room made the air in the room uneasy. The uneasy feeling in the room dissipated momentarily due to Brian's father presenting a plate with three pancakes topped with strawberries and maple syrup. Eating his meal Brian occasionally looked up towards his room hoping that Azeban was still asleep and in his room, he wasn't worried about him being unable to get out of the house if needed, though the boy was curious about what tale he was going to bring to life today.

Finishing with his pancakes Brian headed back up to his room to get his backpack and when he went into his room, he noticed that the raccoon wasn't in the closet and the window was open. Thinking that Azeban left the house to get something to eat Brian got his bag and left the house to walk to school, not knowing that the raccoon trickster stowed away in the boy's backpack.

While Brian was walking Azeban unzipped the backpack to where he could poke his head out and see where his host went every day. As the trickster was sight-seeing he heard a car coming so he lowered his head a bit so he wouldn't be made and the car that passed by was the red mustang with the black and purple motorcycle following behind. He snickered to himself at the trouble he caused the hunters and he knew they were one man short from what he had done last night. The coon carefully retreated back into the bag and waited out the trip.

**~X~**

I could not believe that neither Moose Lake nor Jackman had a nearby police station. Seeing what happened to my team only made me suspect a trickster even more but I've never known a trickster not to deliver 'just deserts' to anyone who deserved it. With Monarch in jail from the ordeal last night kept me up wondering how he was holding up.

Needing to know if 'he' was behind all this, I quickly called up Sora telling her that I was going to stay in town to go more investigating which she didn't argue but told me to be careful like the mother hen she is and kept on going to Greenville, where Monarch was at.

Going back into the woods I knew that no one would go walking in there at this time so it would be safe.

"Gabriel, it's me, X." I paused, thinking about what I should say because I never actually prayed for an angel before. "I need to talk to you, this is a serious matter so if you hear my prayer please come here." I finished and waited for the archangel/trickster to appear.

I looked at my phone for the time and seen that ten minutes had passed, Gabe did say that if I needed him he'd be a prayer away so what's going on? "Hey Emmy, so what's this 'serious' matter you want to talk about?" The archangel's voice piped up from behind me which on instinct I rapidly spun around to face him. "But can we make this quick, I got a muttonhead to teach a lesson by putting him in a never-ending Tuesday. Imagine every time you wake up you hear 'Heat of the Moment' by Asia."

I couldn't help but feel sorry for the 'muttonhead' who caught Loki's attention but I had other matters to worry about. "Alright, to put this plain and simple; Have you been to this town and wreaking havoc with fairy tales?"

"No, something like that isn't my style. I prefer to be creative with my pranks while occasionally drawing from crazy tabloids once in a while." The way Gabriel answered me had me believe him but I had to be sure.

"So you didn't do anything in this town or to my team?"

"Nope, I may be an angel but even I can't be in two places at once." Gabe looked at a nonexistent watch on his wrist, "It's just about time for me to get back to the diner and have some pancakes with maple syrup before muttonhead shows up, so see ya."

In that instant Gabriel vanished from sight leaving me relieved that it wasn't him causing this mess but the thing is still out there.

**~X~**

Bailing Monarch out of the Greenville jail Sora was behind the wheel of the red mustang with Monarch in the passenger side seat and Wolf in the back. The radio was turned off which allowed the silence and humming of the engine to overtake the car.

When the two hunters picked Monarch from jail the first thing he did was apologize to Wolf even though he had no idea what exactly he done but he had asked the cops what he was in for when he was brought back to his senses. From there Sora had to fill Monarch in on all that happened which encouraged more apologies to Wolf and it started to bug the eldest hunter because it reminded her of how she was before her first run-in with the supernatural.

"Wolf, I'm so sorry. I should've tried to regain control over myself."

"Monarch, none of what you did was your fault, it was the trickster not you."

"If I hear one more apology I'm gonna pull this car over and knock it into your heads that nothing of what happened last night was any of your faults." Sora spoke up as she hovered her foot over the brake just in case to better prove her threat.

Monarch let out a sigh, leaning slightly forward in his seat, "I can't help it, I should've been able to stop myself."

"But you couldn't, this was nothing like that time Monarch." Sora wanted to avoid bringing up what happened to Monarch but hinting was the best she could do without going into the little details, "We'll find this creature and get rid of it and to do that we all gotta keep ourselves together."

To get rid of the silence Sora turned on the radio which the station it was on was all about classic rock. About thirty minutes away from Moose River Monarch brought up the case to get their minds off of last night's ordeal which worked. While Wolf and Sora were talking, Monarch got on the laptop despite the internet connection and started doing some research.

Clicking on several sites that pertained to the acts the people of Moose River went through the male hunter came to a theory, "Guys, I think I got something. All the acts the people performed are from the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales and I've been looking up tricksters and got a few possible culprits."

Wolf looked over Monarch's seat to see what tricksters he had up and saw several tabs open, "Well who do we have?"

"Well we have; Bamapana the Australian Aboriginal trickster who causes discord, Coyote from the Navajo myth who's irresponsible, trouble-making and can control rain while having a human form consisting of a man with a moustache. The Norse God Loki, and lastly Azeban of the Abenaki lore hailing from Southern Quebec, known for being a raccoon and not being malevolent or dangerous."

As Monarch listed off the possible tricksters behind the mess in Moose River, the three realized they hadn't had experience in dealing with a trickster so they needed X to figure out how to deal with one assuming that she's faced one before. Arriving back in Moose River Sora got a call from X that she's where they interviewed the couple acting out the cat and mouse tale.

Meanwhile as the hunters were going to meet up with X, Brian was walking back home looking a little happy but annoyed at the same time. Azeban poked his head out from his host's back pack looking around for the next pawns he can use for his antics.

"When would you like the next tale to begin?" Azeban asked innocently even though he knew perfectly well why Brian was annoyed with him.

Stopping for a moment Brian took off his back pack, grabbed Azeban by the scruff of his neck to pull him out and put him on the ground, "Bandit, like I said at school, you can't just sneak in my bag. Because of you school had to be let out early since animal control couldn't find you."

"You're still mad about that?" Azeban tilted his head to the side, "I told you that I wanted to see what your 'schools' were like and I made it more entertaining for you. That place just seemed far too dull."

Zipping up his bag and putting it back on his back the boy made his way back home, blatantly ignoring the raccoon that began following him. Just a few blocks away from the home Azeban noticed a mother with her child and remembered how Brian complained that the child wouldn't stop crying from time to time during the night and weekend. Though seeing that it was still the afternoon the trickster thought he should best wait till later to put on another performance and until Brian has calmed down, but he thought he was doing him a kindness by getting Brian out of his history class with his sudden appearance.

Getting to the front lawn of his house Brain looked over to see the red mustang that drove by yesterday. At first he never thought anything of it but it was the fourth time he's seen it drive by and he's heard from his classmates that the people who own it were asking questions about Azeban's little pranks. Going inside Brian began wondering who the people were exactly while having to explain to his father why his school let out early.

**~X~**

I was relieved when Sora and Wolf arrived with Monarch safe and sound and that there was no after effect of whatever the trickster did. Though Monarch did feel guilty about what he did to Wolf under the trickster's influence but like Sora had said to him earlier on their way here, it's not his fault.

As Monarch had started listing off what tricksters we could possibly be facing I seen Loki's name on the list and inwardly cringed. I wanted to say that Loki isn't the one we're after but if I said that then everyone would be wondering how I know that and I kinda told Gabe that I wouldn't blow his cover but I did remember who Loki picks on the most. "This isn't Loki we're dealing with that's for sure."

"How do you know X?" Wolf questioned me which I was fully prepared to answer.

"I've encountered Loki once and his targets are usually dicks high on power." I explained and added, "It was before I met you guys and wasn't as experienced which let him get away, but I know this isn't him."

Monarch crossed Loki's name off the list of tricksters, "Okay, now we just gotta narrow down our search." the hunter then added, "Is it common for supernatural monsters to cross out of their native lands?"

I haven't faced many foreign monsters other than Eshu, but he was the only trickster from another country that I've met. "No, normally tricksters and other creatures will stay in their native land where they're familiar with the territory. Only during certain cases will they migrate if their home has been destroyed."

With that said the rest of the tricksters on the list looked like they would fit the profile though Bamapana is questionable due to being on the other side of the world. As for Coyote and Azeban, those two are the perfect candidates for something like this but now we had to find out who it is before some poor soul gets in the trickster's way.

Going to a park where there were hardly any people, Monarch and Sora were doing research on where the two tricksters originated from, Wolf called up our commissioner and told him that we were going to be staying in an inn in Jackman to better protect ourselves. The need for distance with the town was understandable because during the whole oatmeal catastrophe none of the goop made it out of the town without disappearing before the trickster wanted it to. As my friends were busy I got a good distance away from them and activated my ability to see if I could see the trickster if it decided to go on a leisurely stroll. When I looked towards a row of houses I nearly missed it because of how far away I was but what I saw was a raccoon, but it looked older than anything I'd ever seen.

Though just as I tried to get a closer look at it to see if I wasn't just seeing things, which was unlikely but I had to be sure, the raccoon ran off in the trees and out of my line of sight. Something in the back of my mind told me that the raccoon trickster Monarch mentioned was the culprit but for now it was best to be open to all possibilities just in case. Once I got back over the group Sora suggested that we split into groups of two and make an attempt to smoke out whoever we were dealing with.

Just before we were about to head off a woman's shriek was heard from across the park, "Anyone wanna bet that the trickster is at it again?"

"No doubt about it." Sora commented as she closed the laptop and placed it in its case so we could go investigate.

By the time we got to where the woman's shriek originated from she rushed outside to her neighbor begging for help, saying that elves took her child and replaced him with a changeling. I may not know fairy tales all that much since I woke up but one thing I know about changelings is that they're a danger and regardless of the situation being a fairy tale a changeling is still a changeling. Though by the time we got across the street the woman who screamed was talking to her neighbor and just before I could go over to get rid of the changeling, Sora held me back and held out an open book in front of me.

"X, read this." I held the book open to the story title 'The Elves' story three. "Since everything here is one big Brothers Grimm tale, it's safe to assume that the third story of 'The Elves' is in play so it should end shortly."

I thought that it was strange for Sora to have a book on the Brothers Grimm tales on her; sure she's been a big book reader when I rescued her but to have something like that on her seemed kinda strange. But I skimmed through the third story anyway, "Okay these people are crazy, changelings do not eat human food they feed off the mother for a few months and they sure as hell don't stare into the distance and lay around."

"These stories were written in the 1800's and possibly by people who had no idea that changelings were real creatures and had been brought up on fables."

What Sora had said could've been true, Changelings, among other creatures that go bump in the night knew how to lay low and perceive themselves are mere fairy tales to people. Going over to where the third story was being played out, the mother left her neighbor's home and straight to us.

"Please, you four come bear witness to see if indeed making the changeling laugh would bring my child back to me." the woman outright asked me and my friends who were looking at one another confused.

"X... There's nothing in the book about that, the trickster must be putting in his own words or something." Sora informed me while she was going over the tale for possibly the fourth time to make sure there were no changes in her book or something that she could've overlooked.

"We might as well play along; maybe the trickster could be inside or nearby." Wolf whispered as we all followed the woman in her home as she went to get the changeling.

When she came back she set it down in front of the fireplace and told us, "What the neighbor told me is that if you boil water in two eggshells it'll make the changeling laugh which would be its downfall." All the while from where I stood in the living room, she went into the kitchen, cracked an egg and brought the shells filled now with water in the living room.

As she placed them into the fireplace carefully the changeling looked at what the woman did and spoke, "I am as old now as the Western forest, but never yet have I seen any one boil anything in an egg-shell!" And he began to laugh at it!

As the changeling laughed literally out of nowhere tiny little people appeared carrying a baby boy. They set the baby down next to the changeling and picked up the changeling, right then and there both the elves and changeling disappeared in a blue shimmer. Seeing the shimmer was our cue to leave the house before the woman calls the cops and we all end up in jail for a 'breaking and entering' charge, so while the woman was beginning to snap back to her normal self me, Sora, Monarch and Wolf made our exit as quiet as possible.

Getting away from the home the four of us congregated to the mustang and looked at one another, "Any of you manage to sneak away to see if the trickster was in the woman's home?" I asked, thinking that one of my friends slipped away to check the home.

"I only got to check out the kitchen and a few small rooms on the first floor before that lady brought us all back into the living room." Wolf answered then added, "But no person or creature that could've been the trickster."

**~X~**

While the four hunters decided to best think it over away from any possible bystanders; Brain was laughing in his room after the raccoon shown him what he had done. Azeban thought he'd done well with the short story by seeing how much his host was laughing but what was bothering the trickster was that he seen the four hunters get dragged into the play but remained unaffected by his power. Sure he ad-libbed some of the story to make it seem more interesting since it was so short but the hunters arriving wasn't something he thought would happen. Going to the window he had seen the hunter drive away into town.

_'I guess I'll have to try a little harder...' _Azeban thought as he shifted his gaze towards the Brothers Grimm book and inwardly smiled, _'This is going to be so much fun.'_


End file.
